via nprA charity auction held on eBay to have dinner with Sarah Palin ended Friday night with a winning bid of $63,500. Cathy Maples of Huntsville, Ala., offered the small fortune to have dinner with the former Alaska governor, beating another bidder by $100.
"We were very excited," Maples says. "Me and my 13-year-old grandson were standing at the computer doing a countdown."
The money will benefit a charity for wounded military veterans.
Maples says she hopes to see Palin become president someday. She supported her when Palin ran for vice president in 2008.
"I've met her twice before, but I want to take my grandchildren," Maples said. "I have an 18-year-old and a 13-year-old and I intend to take them to the dinner."
It doesn't sound like there will be much awkward small-talk over dinner; Maples says that she wants to talk politics with Palin.
"I'd like to talk to her about what's going on in the United States and the economy and some of these czars that are in Washington that have such a bad reputation," Maples says.
Event organizers point out the $63,500 only covers the dinner. Maples, who owns a defense contracting company, will have pay her family's travel expenses to chow down with Palin, most likely in Alaska.
But she considers the money, which will benefit the Ride to Recovery charity for wounded veterans, to be money well spent.
"It was a rather large sum — more than I had anticipated to begin with — but I thought, you know, somebody's going to do it," she said. "Why not me?"
the fact that the winner of the auction owns defense contracting company and wants to see palin as president one day were the only highlights really