Lisa started watching the television game show, "The Price is Right," a long time ago, with her dad.

Her husband, Corey Leonard, has been a fan since age 4, when he watched the show with his grandma.

For years, Lisa has wanted to appear on the show.

"I had tickets a few years ago in college, " she said. "But my friends didn't want to go, so we didn't go."

This time, she didn't miss her chance.

When she and Corey decided to go to Las Vegas for her cousin's birthday, they also wrote for game show tickets.

"We decided to rent a car and drive five hours to Los Angeles, just to see 'The Price is Right,'" Lisa said. "We requested tickets for the entire week, because we didn't know which day we could go over."

Their tickets guaranteed a place in line, but not a seat in the studio. That privilege is reserved for the first 350 people in line.

"We arrived in Los Angeles at 9 p.m.," Lisa said, "and we woke up at 2 a.m. and were in line for 'The Price is Right' at 3 a.m."

Another family from their motel was also in line, right in front of them.

"We were number 25 and 26 in line," Lisa said, "so we had some 'wiggle room.' After a long day of registration and nametags and just waiting around, we were interviewed briefly by a producer."

Each person was asked where they were from and what they do for a living.

"It's difficult to stand out when you're asked such basic questions," Lisa said.

Nevertheless, she managed to squeeze in the fact that Mount Pulaski is in the middle of Illinois and to talk about her sales job and a bit about her husband, small talk that seemed to please the producer.

She thinks their T-shirts helped too.

"Corey came up with the idea for the shirts," she said. "The plane ticket said it was 1,500 miles to Las Vegas. I said I wondered how far it was to Los Angeles. Corey said it was 200 some miles - 1,700 miles from Mount Pulaski.

"The sign outside Mount Pulaski says Mount Pulaski has 1,700 people."

The message on Lisa's shirt was "I came 1700 Miles from a town of 1700 just to Kiss BOB!" Corey's shirt said he came that far to meet Bob Barker, the shows longtime emcee.

"We made the shirts on my living room floor," she said. She did the lettering on her computer, then ironed the letters on the shirts.

"You have to have big print," she said. "They seem to be a sucker for how far people come."

Of the 320 people who made it into the studio, only nine were called down and only six made it as far as the stage.

"We got into the studio at 12:15 p.m. and were seated in the middle section, second row," Lisa said. The third person called to the stage was Lisa Von (something), and Lisa almost shot out of her seat, since "Vaughn" is her maiden name.

"A split second later, I saw the cue card," she said, "and it said in huge caps, 'LISA LEONARD.'

"I never even heard them say 'Come on down,' or anything. I just saw the cue card and went crazy."

What happened next?

Lisa can't say until after the show airs on Nov. 16.

Then, she can tell the rest of the story.

"All in all, we had a great time," she said. "Corey and I went out of our way to visit this show, because I had a feeling I would regret it if I didn't.

"I was glad we took this journey, because this 60 minutes of fun really made my dreams come true."

And she was probably wise to embrace the opportunity.

This June, at the age of 84, Bob Barker is scheduled to retire from his role of game show host, a role he has held since 1972.