Day 8 | August 2nd
It was nice getting up and not having to rush out of the house. Mark got ready for work and left. I had breakfast, got ready and left. Not all my friends are geeks like me. Mark gave his computer to his parents so he doesn’t have Internet access. I needed to find a coffee shop with free Wifi and I didn’t want to sit at the workshop location for 12 hours. Off to Huntsville I went.
Now this is where technology failed on my trip. I wanted to find a Starbucks but the address I found on Google using my phone didn’t seem to be up-to-date because when I arrived at the address there was no coffee to be found. I knew of a nice shopping area, but I didn’t know the name of it. I did know one of my favourite shops was there. I went to the store’s website, did a location search, clicked on the address and the GPS came up on my phone. I began to drive.
It didn’t look right. It didn’t feel right. When I was nearly at my destination I knew something was wrong. I pulled over, mucked with the store’s website, mucked with Google and figured out the problem. The GPS coordinates programmed into the store’s website were wrong. Once I punched the address into my GPS (vs my phone) all was well. At least I am not one of those people that followed the GPS instructions onto a cotton field! (It wasn’t that wrong, but I sure wasn’t in the city any more.)
By this time it was after lunch and I was famished. I was never so happy to sit, have a sandwich and hot cuppa tea while I relaxed in the sunshine. Once satiated I pulled out my laptop and began to work. I sat there all afternoon until it was time to head to Angel’s Island Coffee to run my 5th workshop.
I had met Melissa and Rhona at the sweepstakes convention 6 weeks before where they registered for the workshop. There doesn’t seem to be many sweepers in the region (or I am not connected to many of them) as no one else signed up.
Since it was just the three of us, instead of doing drawings (which seemed really silly with only two attendees) I made each of them a goodie bag with freebies and giveaways. The workshop turned out to be more of a personal training class than a workshop. Rhona wanted to learn RoboForm and Melissa wanted to learn Pinterest, so I sat between them and went back and forth. It was a lot of fun.
FOR MORE PICTURES SEE THE #CQTOUR PHOTO ALBUM ON FACEBOOK
We spent just over 2 hours together drinking the coffee shop specialities, chatting and laughing. Both ladies felt it was well worth the drive from Tuscaloosa to Huntsville. At this point I needed to get back to Mark’s in Guntersville to get a modicum of sleep.
What I didn’t write about was how on Day 2 I got an email from Fox 5 Atlanta asking if I was available for an interview Saturday morning. Now my original plan was to sleep in, go for brunch followed by a leisurely drive to Atlanta. However I learn you never say no to the media. As Guntersville AL is in Central Time, I got up at 3am, took a quick shower, threw everything into the car and left. My goal was to get to Atlanta GA as quickly as I could. I could do hair and make-up at the studio. I arrived at 7:30am Eastern Time with plenty of time to get gussied up before going on the air at 8:10am. Sadly Fox 5 Atlanta doesn’t post their weekend interviews on their website so I am unable to share it.
GOOD LUCK!
Carolyn Wilman (aka @ContestQueen) is the author of You Can’t Win If You Don’t Enter. She teaches others how to find, organize, enter and win contests, sweepstakes and giveaways. To-date others have won over $1,000,000 using her Online Contesting System. With over twenty years experience as a Sweepstakes Management Consultant, Carolyn also helps companies create, and viral market, winning promotions maximizing ROI and loyal customers.
Thanks for sending my book as promised, I just need time to read it. Hope your having a great experience seeing and doing many things while on business and pleasure in the states.
Your article was interesting.