Cricket Camping and the Eiffel Tower!

Recently, we decided it had been too long since we had been camping and we had to get out! The weather was warm, ball season hadn’t started, and we had no weekend commitments. There was a problem – rain was in the forecast everywhere in our weekend trip radius that we checked. Then we found it--a location that had no rain in the forecast! That location was Paris...

​…Paris, Tennessee and the Paris Landing KOA. Turns out we weren’t alone. We talked to a few other campers who selected this location based on the forecast as well! This KOA turned out to be a great find. It is located just across the Tennessee border near Kentucky Lake and close to Land Between the Lakes. We received a call from Shannon, the KOA owner, the night before our trip to confirm our arrival, discuss our needs, and answer any questions, which we found incredibly thoughtful. We arrived before sunset on Friday night. The KOA is a smaller KOA, however it packs plenty to do. Over the weekend, our family enjoyed the miniature golf course, nine-hole disc golf course, playground, gem mining, and an activity room including a Lego wall, coloring, and board games. There is also a large pool that wasn’t open yet for the season. They also had several bags sets around the public areas of the campground and more outdoor games available in the activity room. 
 
Saturday morning we talked with the owner about what to do. We decided to visit Eiffel Tower Park. The park has a large public pool, disc golf, a playground, tennis, and a 60 foot replica of the Eiffel Tower. It turns out the end of April is also when the World’s Biggest Fish Fry takes place in Paris! We got to see a parade celebrating catfish, catfish races, catfish artwork and ate lunch at the fish fry, which serves over 12,500 pounds of catfish annually. We let Lillian and Mitchell each get a fidget spinner, which maybe the most random toy craze we’ve indulged.  
 
We had successfully dodged the rain! We had full sun with a beautiful breeze and a high of 85 degrees on Saturday. Perfect weather! We were paying attention to the weather at home and read reports that we were getting so much rainfall on Saturday that it broke all previous records, causing sinkholes and other damages. Overall, we got 11 inches of rain in three days.  We were hoping that everything at home was okay while enjoying the sun!

We ended our day with a campfire (we just invested in this great fire poker!), tossed banana boats in the fire, had razor scooter races, shot LED copters, and enjoyed a relaxing campground evening with other campers. However, just before three a.m., we got a weather alert on our phones – storms were in the area. We made the unpleasant decision to get out of bed and pack up our outdoor gear – chairs, screen room, rug, toys – so we would not have to pack in the rain later that morning. The strong storms just missed the campground, but the rain settled in, making our early morning decision to pack a good one.
 
Sunday morning as we were preparing to leave, Shannon was again out engaging all of the campers that were outside, even as the rain fell. Her engagement and commitment to the campers was unlike any we’d previously seen. She truly made us feel like welcome guests at the Paris Landing KOA, a level of appreciation we haven’t previously encountered in our two years of camping.    
 
The Paris Landing KOA would be a very good option for exploring Kentucky Lake, Land Between the Lakes, Murray Kentucky, or Discovery Park of America--or just a great weekend escape to dodge the rain!

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