It looks to be about a five hour trip from my house to Fayetteville, not including any come-to-a-complete-standstill traffic in Charlotte; so round trip would be ten hours. Add four hours or so for the gathering, and an hour or so for driving breaks, and it's doable in a day. Definitely worth considering.
I do have to mention that I wouldn't have any interest in the food portion of the program and would want to leave before that activity takes place. In fact, I must admit that I would feel more comfortable with the situation if the playing area is not within smell range of the cooking area; I'm thinking I would be physically uncomfortable spending any length of time with that smell. Sorry to be a problem in that regard, but I'm just trying to be honest with myself.
But I think it's a great idea, and thank you for the offer of your place for the gathering. If you don't think my little issue with the cooking smell will be a problem then I think we should kick this around and see what everybody else thinks.
I haven't been in that part of the state in quite a while and it would be nice to drive through the rural sandhills area again.