Watsadler Campground Hartwell, Georgia March 19 – 26, 2025

We left Fort McAllister Historic State Park around 9:15 am on March 19th for a 5-hour drive to Watsadler Campground in Hartwell, Georgia. This was our first time at this campground and this part of Georgia.

Hartwell Lake

Most of the campsites here were on the water of Hartwell Lake, which is a man made lake off the Savannah River. It is one of the largest and most-visited man made lakes in the Southeast United States. The lake was built between 1955 and 1963 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a flood control and hydropower project that borders both Georgia and South Carolina. In fact, if we had driven a few miles to the northeast of our campground, we would have been in South Carolina.

The lake is comprised of a little over 56,000 acres of water and 962 miles of shoreline. Unfortunately, the lake is polluted with high levels of PCBs (Polychlorinated Biphenyls) and the eating of certain fish from its waters is not advised. We saw lots of Canadian Geese and Herons in and around the lake and were hopeful that they were not adversely affected by the water pollution. The same hopes were extended to the wide variety and large number of birds we saw in the trees of the campground like woodpeckers, sparrows, robins, tufted tit mouses and others.

Watsadler Campground

This region is rich in historical lore and many of the rivers, local communities and recreation areas bear Indian names or the names of early settlers and pioneers who inhabited the area. Watsadler Campground is an example of an area named for a family. The Sadler family lived in the area from 1903 to 1928 and the campground is named for Wat Sadler who lived in this part of Hart County.

Our site was a pull-through and was supposed to be able to fit a 50-foot rig. It was still a little tight and we had to make a couple of placement adjustments to fit in because of how it was laid out and the location of trees, retaining wall, etc. Our front door looked out onto Hartwell Lake, so Cindy really enjoyed sitting out there at daybreak and watching the sunrise across the placid blue waters. We had water and electric hook-ups but the water pressure was pretty low. Just below our site was a grassy area that leads into the lake. Whenever I would take Bella out for her bathroom break late at night or before sunrise, I would always sweep my flashlight beam across the area to make sure no alligators had crawled out in the darkness.

Never saw any so maybe they don’t allow Gators there in Bulldog Country, lol!

There are two loops in the campground but the one we were in was the only one open at the time. There were, sadly, no trails in the campground, so we could only take Bella on walks in our campground loop as well as the closed campground, since it was still open to foot traffic. This allowed us to still get in a mile in the morning and a mile in the early evening each day.

On our first night there, I finished “Unconditionally MAD, Part 1 – The First Unauthorized History of MAD Magazine” by Mark Arnold. You can read my review here.

Happy First Day of Spring

We awoke Thursday morning to the first day of Spring and cooler temps in the lower 40’s. We took Bella on her first walk through the closed campground loop and went a little beyond it on a short trail where we found someone in a tent on a small spit of land extending out into Hartwell Lake. The tent was placed so that it was hidden from the campground area by a stand of trees. We never said anything to the ranger or hosts because everybody’s got to have a place to sleep.

I spent the rest of the day reading and writing while Cindy was tatting. Then Cindy and I watched a couple of “Modern Family” episodes as well as the penultimate episode of “Reacher” season three before heading off to bed.

In an unusual occurrence, Bella woke me up at 1:30 am Friday asking to go outside where she promptly had a bad bout of diarrhea. I am amazed at how smart she is and what a good girl she is to do her best not to have to an accident inside. She has been that way since she was a little puppy. I think she had one accident at the cabin and we lightly scolded her and positively reinforced that we wanted her to go outside and she has done so ever since.

She didn’t want breakfast Friday morning, but she did want to go for a walk so we did and she seemed to be OK.

Athens

We had timed tickets for a tour of Athens that we had prepaid for, but we still considered taking the loss to stay home with Bella. She, however seemed fine and we finally decided that she had probably emptied her tummy completely between the early morning runs and her walk that morning, so we went ahead with our trip to Athens.

It was about an hour’s drive to Athens, a city we had never visited before, and the drive was scenic. We took the backroads rather than the Interstate, which is why the 40-mile drive took an hour.

We scoped out where the Athens Visitor Center was, then parked in a nearby parking garage and headed to the Athens Music Walk of Fame.

Athens Music Walk of Fame

Athens has been known for its music scene for decades and has spawned many, many musical groups and performers. Back in 2020, the first ten inductees of the Athens Music Walk of Fame were installed in a two-square-block area of downtown Athens. Bordered by Pulaski Street, W. Washington Street, N. Limpkin Street, and W. Clayton Street, the walk passes several well-known music venues like the Morton Theater, the 40 Watt Club, and the Georgia Theatre. Those original ten inductees included two of my favorites; The B-52s and R.E.M., so I made sure to have Cindy take my photo with their sidewalk plaques. Every year since that initial induction they have added five inductees to the walk.

Then we grabbed lunch at a nearby sandwich shop called Cheba Hut Toasted Subs.

After lunch we walked around the closest part of the University of Georgia campus before heading back to the Athens Visitor Center for our scheduled shuttle tour of Athens.

Historic Athens Heritage Shuttle Tour

Out tour started at the Visitor Center, which was inside the circa 1820 Church-Waddel-Brumby House Museum. Formerly the home of the President of the University of Georgia, this is one of four “house museums” in Athens and is believed to be the city’s oldest surviving residence. It was originally scheduled to be demolished in the early 1970’s, but the emerging historic preservation movement of the time in Athens rescued it from destruction. It was restored and then moved to its current location.

After the house tour it was onto the shuttle bus where we toured pre-Civil War homes, historic neighborhoods, the downtown area and the UGA campus. Our guide was very knowledgeable and entertaining. Athens is a beautiful town. We didn’t get any photos during the shuttle tour because the windows were tinted and didn’t allow for any decent pictures.

We got back to Nomad and found Bella quietly relaxing in my recliner. We took her for her evening walk and Cindy fed her some bland rice with chicken broth and gave her some medicine our vet in Orlando recommended.

Cindy and I finished watching season nine of “Modern Family”, then I watched episode four of “Daredevil: Born Again” before we called it a night.

A Quiet Saturday

Thankfully Bella did not wake us up in the middle of the night, so that was good. She still seemed to have some stomach issues (lots of gurgles and squeaks) in the morning and still had no appetite. But, she wanted to go for a walk so we did. She is like Cindy, she gets cabin fever and has to get out of Nomad to feel better. Even if it’s just sitting outside in the sun.

Afterward, Cindy and I drove into nearby Hartwell to the Ingles store to do some light grocery shopping; just picking up a few things. However a woman met us at the front entrance and advised they could only take cash and checks as their Internet was down. They also had no ATM, so we couldn’t get cash from our account either. Frustrated, we went down the street to Aldi’s. The quality is not as good as a Publix or Ingles, but it’s definitely cheaper.

I spent the rest of the day writing, doing some photo editing, and continuing to teach myself Final Cut Pro, while Cindy finished a tatting project she did for me. You can see it in the photo album and when she gets a frame for it we’ll post a photo of that.

Bella still seemed better later in the day, She ate a little for dinner and that made us happy.

She also ate her breakfast Sunday morning, so we were thankful for that. She enjoyed her walk, as usual. She’s just not eating as much as she needs to, but we’re doing all we can to keep her well, comfortable and happy.

Abstract Art Puddles

We awoke to light rain at 5:30 am on Monday, so I got up and took Bella out for her morning bathroom break before the rain got heavier. It rained pretty hard until a little after 10 am, then we took Bella for her morning walk when it stopped.

I don’t want to gross anyone out, but part of watching out for her health condition means we take particular notice of her poop. She hadn’t had much those past few days because she hadn’t been eating all that much. But we have noticed that its color, texture and firmness have moved into more acceptable stages, so we’re very happy for that. We were initially worried that her kidney failure was progressing into Stage 4, but by this point we became hopeful that she just had a bad stomach issue and would recover.

During the walk around the campground we saw lots of puddles from the rain. They were all loaded with, and colored yellow from, the massive amounts of pollen in the area. Poor Cindy is very sensitive to it, so her allergic reactions were off the charts during our stay. You can see from the photos in the album that the puddles looked like pools of chemicals mixed together into some type of abstract art.

Bella Improving

Tuesday found Bella to be MUCH better. her eyes were clear and their sparkle had returned. She was eating and drinking much more like her normal self. We spent most of the day relaxing since Wednesday was a moving day.

That night Cindy and I finished off season 10 of “Modern Family” and I watched the two latest episodes of “Daredevil” Born Again” followed by both of us reading until bedtime.

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