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PLANT CITY - The Morristown Junior League All Stars were on top of the world Wednesday night. Newly crowned victors of the Little League's Southeast Regional softball championship in Fort Myers, the girls partied until 3 a.m.
Two hours later, they were bound for higher ground.
By Thursday afternoon, the team from Morristown, Tenn., was hunkered down in the Days Inn off Interstate 4 in Plant City.
"We're not familiar with hurricanes where we come from," said Pat Taylor, the team's head coach. "Are we safe? Are we inland enough? I'm concerned about the girls and the parents at home not knowing what's going on here."
While Taylor worried, most of his charges - 12 teenage girls - piled into bed together and slept, slumber-party style. Later they went bowling.
With Hurricane Charley headed for Florida's west coast, thousands of people jammed highways and interstates in search of hotel accommodations. The hotels along I-4, east of Tampa, were the first stops for many. By early afternoon, weary hotel receptionists were turning people away. There was, literally, no room in the inn.
"We're sold out," said Maria Rivera, front office manager at the Ramada Inn. "Right now, I've been sending them to Lakeland."
The odds were not much better about a mile away at the Comfort Inn. But for the Pugliese family, vacationing in Sarasota, there was a plea for help and a miracle.
"This is great," Ellen Pugliese, a teacher from Toronto, said after securing a room with two double beds. "If it was to get really bad, I think we'd just keep going on home. It's not like we have nowhere else to go."
Lodging concerns aside, the family's thoughts turned to food. They had only brought cookies.
Beatrice Fehrm and Dennis Shelton also checked into the Comfort Inn without food. Their priority was their three cats.
"I got cat food and cat litter," said Fehrm, 48, who left her Plant City home because she feared swells from a nearby canal could be dangerous. "I wasn't thinking about food."
Finnie and Marjorie Lofton could tutor novice hurricane watchers. The couple live in Englewood and evacuate every time there is a hurricane warning. They closed the shutters on their property Thursday morning and packed comfortable clothing for lounging around the hotel. They brought snacks, bottled water and irreplaceable keepsakes, such as family portraits that include their deceased daughter.
"It just gives you a little vacation," said Lofton, 82, dragging his suitcase and snacks to his room. "We'll just go out to eat and watch the TV and keep track of the storm."
Back at the Days Inn, Suzanne Pope, who lives near Turkey Creek, prepared to check into her room. She took care to bring her husband Dale's 12 guitars and two basses, which could be ruined if high winds strike the couple's mobile home.
Although Pope said he was nervous about storm preparations, she planned to relax with her battery-operated television when the rain and winds come through.
"I'll be all right," she said. "I'm a survivor. Besides, my husband's a rock."
Sherri Day can be reached at 813 226-3405 or sday@sptimes.com