Thursday, April 2, 2026

Lake Hartwell July & August 2025

 July 14 - 17 we camped at Twin Lakes Army Corps of Engineers park on Lake Hartwell.  We had a washout two days, so there wasn't much to blog about.  My friend, Myra, who lives nearby was to come to our site for a picnic, but she didn't feel well, so we cancelled plans.  We did drive around Pendleton a little, stopping at a "meat and three" restaurant in the older part of town.  But, the newer section was disappointing in that it was giving way to franchise shops like in almost any other city, and had lost the small town feeling it once had.


In August, we went back for our third (?) stay at Wadstatdler, another  Corps park, for a 3 nights.

Yep, rain again.  And, boy did it pour.  We decided to drive into Anderson, about 20 miles north, to do some shopping and have a bite to eat.  That turned out to be a bit chancy since the rain had produced severe ponding on the roads.

The next day was overcast, but at least the rain had stopped.  We drove into the town of Elberton, about 10 miles south of us.  It is known as the Granite Capital of the World.  It boasts having produced more granite monuments than any other city in the world.  Granite deposits were found about 9 miles below the earth's surface measuring about 35 miles long and 6 miles deep.  There are 45 active quarries in the area.

 
We had talked about visiting their granite museum before, and we decided to do that on this trip.

One of the reasons is my fascination with the mysterious Georgia Guidestones (see post from May 2022 if you are not familiar with the Guidestones).  I was hoping to get more information about who was behind their construction, but there wasn't anything more than I had already found out.  We didn't go away totally empty handed.  I did get a few free post cards of the monoliths plus a souvenir piece of granite.  I guess there is plenty of that to give to the museum visitors.

The sun made its appearance on our last day.
And in the evening, the moonlight was magical.




Time to Get Back to Blogging - 2026

 I guess I should make this blog more of a "year in review" type thing since posts seem to be a yearly basis.  The last update I did was in June 2025 to catch up from 2024 to May 2025.  And now, almost a year later, I will be reporting from then to our last outing in February 2026.  And, I probably would have procrastinated even longer if it weren't for the nudge from my cousin Carol who said she missed her vicarious adventures with us. After all, she did come with us on our so called honeymoon in 1986.  So, I promised her I would have the blog updated by her birthday (April 8th), and I like to keep my promises.