Some coin toss

In January 1942, Carole Lombard, wife of Clark Gable and a native of Fort Wayne, attended a war bond rally in Indiana.  She was originally scheduled to take the train back to L.A. from Indiana, but she was in a hurry to get home.  Her mother and Clark Gable's press agent, who were also traveling with her, weren't too keen on flying to get back to California, but Lombard was insistent.  They tossed a coin to decide if they would return by train or by plane.  Lombard won the coin toss.  After refueling in Las Vegas, the plane crashed a few miles later into Mount Potosi.  There were no survivors.

The search for the wreckage was based out of Good Springs, Nevada, about twenty minutes outside of Las Vegas.  Well after the search was over, Gable used to return to Good Springs to drink his pain away at the Pioneer Saloon.  That's where I went today.

The bar was built in 1913, and apart from the general store next to it, there isn't much else in Good Springs.  Back in its day, the bar was famed for its shootouts, and bullet holes still riddle the walls.  By the end of the 1940s, the bar top added Gable's cigarette burns to its dilapidated image.  Today the bar is a mixture of cowboy watering hole and leather biker bar.  Their specialty includes sandwiches topped with Ghost Sauce.  (The place is, of course, haunted by the many shooting victims through time.)  Ghost Sauce is some mighty tasty stuff and well worth the drive out of Las Vegas.