Tennessee Trip (to Speak)

Today I flew into Nashville, TN to begin the first leg of my weeklong journey. After arriving at the airport, I picked up my rental car and drove to Memphis (that’s where my first program is). Due to the plane flights having wacky schedules, it made more sense to fly in today than the morning of my program in Memphis.

It was eerily slow at the airport when I arrived to check-in — must be that whole Sunday morning thing. By the time my flight departed, though, the airport was bustling as usual. My ipod provided me with a means to pass the time, and once I got to Nashville and got my bags, it was straight on to Tennessee. Had a late dinner this evening in Memphis (I have to say, it’s really weird to eat out by yourself!)… and now I’m relaxing in my hotel room before the fun begins tomorrow!

A brief overview of my trip (I’m doing a program called “Improving Your Web Presence!”):

• Monday – Memphis – Hosted by MPPG
• Tuesday – Nashville – Hosted by PPMT
• Wednesday – Chattanooga – Hosted by CPPG
• Thursday – Knoxville – Hosted by PPETN

On a random note, while at the hotel room relaxing this evening… I finally had an epiphany. For about three years, I’ve struggled to get Outlook to send my emails from various hotels and wifi hotspots. I did research, tried reassigning outgoing ports, and the whole shebang. Well… today, I encountered the same problem. All of my emails that I’d written during this trip were stuck in my outbox. After doing yet more research on the issue, I discovered that having one measly authentication setting wrong could cause these problems.

So, I went into my Outlook settings, unchecked require outgoing authentication…. and voila! All my messages went on their merry way. What an unbelievably simple solution to a very frustrating problem. Just goes to show you that even geeks meet their match sometimes.

I’m planning to do a little sightseeing around Memphis tomorrow before the program, so I’ll probably share some pictures with you at that point!