CHAPEL HILL -- An ecstatic Michelle Gillespie could hardly contain her joy as she RSVP'd to that magic invitation: "Come on down!"

In an episode of the iconic daytime game show "The Price Is Right" that aired Monday, the Chapel Hill mother of seven wound up on stage kissing Bob Barker, just like she'd always imagined.

"I remember I was 6 years old, and I was sitting there saying, 'I want to kiss him on the cheek,'" Gillespie, 37, said last week.

Gillespie, sporting a homemade "Bunko Gals on Break" T-shirt, played a game called Temptation with a chance to win a car.

By the end, Gillespie had walked off stage, not once but twice, crying tears of disappointment.

• • •Gillespie is not the only area resident for whom the price was right. Avonne Perry sent Barker running for cover behind his beauties when she hit the stage in February.

Perry, 53, of Carrboro, will never forget her wild appearance on the show that she, like Gillespie, has been watching for decades.

"Oh, Bob is so nice," Perry said last week.

"He was running from me. I guess I was carrying on. He said, 'Don't attack me, Avonne, don't attack me.' He was actually hiding behind one of his girls," she said with a laugh. "Of course I had a lot of camera time. I acted real crazy."

She got on stage by bidding $900 on cookware worth $1,000.

Then she heard the words every contestant hopes to hear once they hit that Technicolor stage: "A new car!"

• • •Gillespie received four prizes in succession. She had to pick which number from the price of each item was the next number in the price of the Pontiac Vibe.

She watched the Beauties parade out a bowl of $688 in cash, a $929 office chair, a $3,000 pearl-and-diamond necklace and a $550 crystal clock.

Contestants are tempted between taking the four gifts or rolling the dice and hoping they guessed all the numbers in the car price correctly.

Gillespie looked to the audience for advice: "Take the prizes?" She did.

Then she found out she had the price of the car exactly right. The only reaction from the otherwise boisterous audience was a big collective, "Ohhhh."

"I hit the floor," Gillespie said.

"I have seven children. I really needed that car. I was devastated."

• • •"I have never won anything in my life," Perry said.

Knowing that, it's a little surprising how Perry reacted when the 2006 Chevy Impala Sedan was unveiled.

"The way I was carrying on, you would have thought I had already won the car," she said.

Maybe that sense of self-confidence was what Perry needed to create her own luck.

Her challenge was Pathfinders. Standing in the middle of a 25-square grid, she had to step to each number in the price of the car, in order.

If she made a misstep, she could guess the price of a smaller prize to continue.

That wasn't necessary for Perry.

"I got them perfectly," she said proudly.

"$21,584. I'll remember that for the rest of my life."

Her daughter told her later that Barker said he couldn't recall anyone getting them all right in a row.

Perry was too excited to hear him.

The first contestant in the big wheel game to determine who moved on to the last showcase spun a perfect dollar.

Perry went a nickel over, but was fine with that.

"If I had gotten into the showcase, they would have had to take me in on a stretcher," she said.

"I couldn't take no more."

Perry, who works at Wal-Mart, remembers watching the show years ago and vowing she'd one day win a car on "The Price Is Right."

The reaction was, "Yeah, right."

"My dream came true," Perry said.

"I have never been lucky at nothing. I guess it was just my time."

• • •Gillespie composed herself -- "I still won all the prizes" -- as she went to the big wheel.

She had to say hello to her seven children, ages 4-18, and her husband, David, and everyone at Carolina Fitness in Carrboro, where she works.

By the time she was finished, Barker was telling her she'd won and would bid on the final showcase.

She passed on the first showcase, saying that her fellow contestant Megan was getting married in three months and could use the living room set up for bid.

Gillespie was thrilled to see the second showcase feature a shiny new convertible.

"My dream car," she said.

She always said that when enough of her kids were off at college, she'd buy herself a convertible.

She bid $23,575 on the showcase.

She came up about $6,000 short.

Her opponent was off by about a thousand dollars less.

Barker leaned over to a dejected Gillespie and said, "Than you so much for being on our show. Hope you had fun."

Gillespie was gracious, but once she was off-stage, "I laid my head on producer's shoulder and was just bawling."

It's beating long odds to even get into the studio audience -- Gillespie, her mother and sister-in-law began waiting in line at 4 a.m. -- much less to get your name called, much less to get on stage.

To go all that way and come up short was tough to swallow, Gillespie said.

There's a glimmer of hope, though. As the credits rolled at the end of the show and Megan celebrated with her family, an announcer came on and said she was ineligible for the prizes.

Gillespie said her brother is looking into whether that means she should win the convertible.

Even if that doesn't pan out, Gillespie said she's counting her blessings, including getting to fulfill a wish she made 31 years ago. (Apparently, Barker has very soft cheeks.)

"It was the dream of a lifetime," Gillespie said.