How the heck did we become land owners in the first place?

Our son, Brad, and I had leased some hunting property in South Carolina south of his home in Charlotte. We both shot our first whitetail deer there and really enjoyed having the space to get away.  There were however two main problems with this.  First, it was not ours to manage; we had to use it pretty much as it was.  Second, while it was relatively convenient for Brad (about 45-60 min drive), it was pretty inconvenient for me (3.5 hr drive).  While the drive was fine for a fun, destination trip, it was too far for me to “pop in” for a quick recognizance visit. This planted the seed so to speak, for us to purchase some land of our own to manage as we wished for our enjoyment.  My wife, Jeanette, and I started a search. We first looked at available properties between Fayetteville and Charlotte.  We focused on areas within about a 1.5-2 hr drive from us. We found some promising acreages.

While this search was in progress, I obtained access to about 40 acres of land to hunt that was only 30 minutes from my home.  I could get off work at noon and be in a treestand in time for an evening hunt.  I could pop over and pull cards from a trailcam and still be home for dinner!   Thirty minutes were way better than 90 or 120.  At this distance, the land could actually be used, modified, improved, etc. with much less of a time committment.  My schedule was more flexible than any of the kids that lived out-of-town.  We knew this would limit their day-to-day use. The trade-off in our minds was that we could actually improve the property so it would me more fun for them when they were able to come, and potentially would be someplace they might use long after we were gone.  A legacy?  Another large part of the decision was that our son Chris lived in Fayetteville with his wife and two (at the time) young boys (Luke and Ben).  We would be able to introduce them to the outdoors.  This settled it.  Closer to Fayetteville would be where the search focused.