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  7/24/05 (Sunday) - We arrived by day and by night in cars, vans, trailers and planes to the Howard Johnson's Maingate West Hotel in Kissimmee, Fl.  Some came in a few days early and some arrived just in the nick of time in order to make that trip to Wal-Mart for supplies, but by 8:00PM on Sunday night everyone was present for the team meeting and the first look at our schedule, if only for the first two days anyway.  We find that we begin play bright and early on Monday morning and we are told to be at the field at 7:00AM, so it is off to bed for this night!
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  7/25/05 (Monday) - We arrive at the Osceola Softball Complex at 7:00AM.  We gather to enter and go through the non-customary bag check, each and every one.  The complex limits the amount of food and water brought in by teams, which becomes an issue when you are playing two or three games in 95° - 100°  heat and heat indexes hovering around 105° - 110° .
  Our first game starts at 8:00AM against the Missouri Thunder (Kansas City). Hitting the ball very well, 19 total hits, we win 24-2.  At the end of the game we exchanged goody bags, that the team had put together including many items unique to Virginia, with the opposing team.
  The second game starts at 1:30PM, we played the OC Blues (Orange County, CA).  The bats seem to cool off in the heat as we put together 7 hits to score 8 runs and win 8-0.  Micalah and Maggie combine for the shutout and Micalah and Megan each go 2 for 3 at the plate.
  Everyone heads back to the motel for some relaxation and coolness of the air conditioned rooms. Our next game is tomorrow afternoon at 4:30PM!
  7/26/05 (Tuesday) - This morning we head over to Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex for opening ceremonies.  We arrive and the girls are accompanied by Disney cast members (employees) through a back gate and to a gathering place of all the participants where they were able to trade pins and gifts with the other teams.  The parents go through the main gate and are seated in the upper deck of the main baseball stadium.  This stadium, used by the Atlanta Braves for their spring training, is not too large and seats all of the participants and their entourages comfortably.  Music is pumping and we are getting the feeling that this is going to be really cool!  We begin to see the teams gathering outside of the fence in the outfield, the ceremonies begin with a parade of all the teams being announced, some interviewed.  For us it was Maggie, the question was "What helped you to prepare for the World Series?".  She answered, with the help of Savannah, "Winning!".  Huh?  They all had a laugh and took their place in the stands in the lower deck.  After some hootin' and hollerin', some candy and water throwin' between all of the teams they settled down for a few announcements.  Then to everybody's surprise, the emcee announced that the space shuttle was about to launch.  The countdown started and just about everyone was able to see the first space shuttle launch after the Discovery disaster. It was electric!  Immediately following the launch a live band, Mud, Sweat and Shears, entertained with a lively set of music that had everybody movin' and groovin' in their seats.  Right Bethany?  It all ended with some brief fireworks as an exclamation point on the event and you knew now, if you had any doubt before, that you were in Disney World and playing in the USSSA World Series!
  We get back to the motel, get some lunch and head back to the Wide World of Sports Complex for our 4:30PM start time.  We play a team from Texas and win 5-4 on only three hits, one of them being a game winning single by Micalah,  Mackenzie and Megan supplied the other two hits. After the finish some go out for some well deserved dinner and head back to the motel for the night and some take off to Tampa to take in a game between the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the Boston Red Sox!
  7/27/05 (Wednesday) - YooHoo! It's our day off, sort of!  Before everyone heads out to the amusement and water parks we take the time to get a practice in.  After the practice session, the girls shower and we all head out, some in the same and some in different directions!  We don't have another game until Thursday night at 7:00PM, so it looks like it might be a late night for those visiting the parks, while others take in an additional game while the Red Sox are in town.
  7/28/05 (Thursday) - Everyone is a little slow getting up this morning as we get together and decide who will make the morning 7-Eleven coffee run since the motel coffee isn't the greatest. Some decide to hang around the motel today, while others take the opportunity to visit a park or shop for a few hours prior to having to be at the Osceola Complex at 5:30PM.
  What we have been missing during this week, finally arrives. That is rain! It is fairly common for a daily rain to occur. You could call them showers, and they probably do in Florida, but this is rain by the buckets. We had not experienced any up until this point. With the tight schedule that must be kept for the rest of this week and the double elimination format, all games must be completed prior to the start of the next play day. That being said, due to a 5:00PM shower, our scheduled 7:00PM game against the Texas Redhots starts at 11:30PM!
  We manage to get one hit a piece from Micalah, Meghan and Bethany and seven walks to win the game 7-0 and finish at 1:00AM. We get back home and most are not able to get to bed until 1:30 - 2:00AM.  Not a problem except for the fact that we have a 9:45AM game time, with a 9:00AM arrival.  This gives the faster bather/eaters a whopping 5 hours sleep.  The sleep and nutritional deprivation begins!
  7/29/05 (Friday) - Most of us arrive in fractured groups after little sleep at 9:00AM at the Osceola Complex. There was little or no time to get a proper meal for breakfast so the girls go with Gatorade!
  The quick turnaround didn't show to badly as the bats make a comeback. We get 13 hits with Claire (3 for 3) and Caitlin (4 for 4) leading the way in an 8-2 victory over the Anderson Extreme!  Micalah throws a two-hitter that shuts down the bats of the Extreme!
  Our next scheduled game is for 5:00PM, so we head back to the motel, try to get some decent, healthy food and catch up on some sleep prior to our next start time of 5:00PM!
  We arrive at the Disney complex at about 4:00PM to start warm-ups and we get the game underway at about 5:00PM against Sports Academy (Tennessee).  We manage three runs on seven hits with Micalah (2 for 4) getting a double and a triple and Megan getting the lone RBI for this game.  Maggie, Bethany and Micalah combine to throw a two-hitter in a 4-3 loss that sends us into the losers bracket!
  7/30/05 (Saturday) - Our first game of the day is scheduled for a 5:00PM start time so the coaches take the opportunity in the morning to get together and go over some bunt coverage and pick-off plays.  Boy is it hot!  A couple of the girls almost get overcome by the heat.  The motto of water, water, water is always worth repeating, especially in Florida.
  We planned to spend the remainder of the afternoon resting, but this day would not be without incident. As luck would have it, and girls being girls, a horseplay game of tag would lead to Lauren’s throwing hand getting slammed in the motel room door. Bandaged up and throbbing we show up at the Wide world of Sports complex at about 4:00PM. After a short rain delay we get started against the Northern Ice at about 6:00PM.
  Behind a one-hitter thrown by Micalah the bats stayed hot, this time Savannah (2 for 2, 1 RBI), Meghan (2 for 3, 1 RBI) lead the team in hitting and Lauren comes alive by launching a triple and driving in a run.  The WildFire win by a score of 6-0.
  It is now time for a visit to the Disney Trainers that are on location for a professional taping/bandaging job on the infamous finger.
  Our next game was scheduled to start at 7:00PM, but due to another rain delay gets under way at 9:30PM against the Little Lady Hatters (Florida). Micalah pitches and holds the Hatters to three hits, while Alyssa (2 for 3, 1RBI) and Bethany (1 for 1, 2 RBI) get the scoring done early.  The Hatters come back in the fourth and fifth innings to tie the game. Now it is bottom of the 7th, tie game and we have bases loaded and two outs. Guess who comes to bat? Yep, bandaged finger and all. Well, as they say: the rest is history. The first pitch is sent on a one bounce trip to the right-center field fence. As Lauren rounds second she is met by half of the team and never makes it to third.
  This was a tough game for all as emotions ran very high and you could see and feel the exhaustion from the week taking its' collective toll on the girls. A couple of them are visibly spent as the game ends around 11:15 - 11:30PM. Having been at the complex since 4:00PM, no one has had dinner. We come out of the Disney resort area and find that all the parks have emptied and the visitors are now in the restaurants. They were busy beyond compare!  We finally got some takeout food and hit the bed at about 1:00AM.  Not bad except for the fact that we are in the top 6 teams and have another game in seven hours, 8:00AM!
7/31/05 (Sunday) - We roll out of bed at 6:00AM to arrive at the complex at 7:00 - 7:15AM.  Once again, food this early after having eaten so late, and being half asleep, is not even a consideration for most and it begins to show.
  We show up to play the Baton Rouge Blazers (Louisiana), we are only able to muster 1 hit, that being a triple by Bethany. They jump on us for four runs in the first inning on one hit and some uncharacteristic errors in the field.  The girls could not recover and finished this run with a 7-0 loss.
  Even though the loss was difficult for some of the girls to except, they were all elated at finishing 5th out of 38 teams in this tournament.  They left every bit of themselves on the field and had a spectacular week of softball.
  How long does the mourning last for twelve year old girls?  About as long as it took them to get back to the motel, shower and be on their way back to the Magic Kingdom for a day of rides, laughter and hanging out with Mickey and friends!
BEEN THERE!   DONE THAT!  WANT TO GO BACK!