Primm jam: Motorists displeased or at ease

Gary Mott's life early Thursday was like that of hundreds of truckers and motorists caught in the wintry weather near Primm: Instead of putting the pedal to the metal, he was parked on Interstate 15, stopped cold in a mile-long traffic jam about 40 miles south of Las Vegas.

But unlike so many others who idled their time away by cursing the snow that closed the Mountain Pass section of the highway across the state line, the Crete Carrier Corporation trucker's mind traveled to the white sandy beaches and luxurious oceanfront hideaways of the Caribbean, where mystery novelist Stuart Woods set "Shoot Him If He Runs."

"At least this book moves real well," the professional driver of 30 years said, holding the tome against the steering wheel of his 18-wheeler. "Woods can tell a story. The chapters fly by. You should read him."

The 56-year-old trucker and would-be book critic, on his way to Ontario, Calif., from Nebraska to drop off a load of Kawasaki motorcycles, said it does no good to mumble and grumble about things out of your control.

But don't tell that to 61-year-old Cora Anderson, who marched up I-15 mumbling and grumbling about the conditions that had shut down the freeway since Wednesday.

She had jumped off the employee shuttle bus from Las Vegas about a mile back so as not to be late for her job as a server at Whiskey Pete's, which, with Buffalo Bill's and Primm Valley, is part of Terrible's Primm Valley Casino Resorts.

"This is why I left Ohio, to get out of this mess," she said, all bundled up like an Ohioan as she walked down the highway exit toward her work. "I don't want snow in Las Vegas. Who would want snow around here?"

It turned out that Janna Sosna, a sales assistant for the Primm resorts, would.

"The snow reminds me of Moscow in my native Russia," she said. "Snow is so beautiful."

Never would Sosna say "nyet" to snow, but she had more than beauty on her mind in praising the weather.

"We have 2,800 rooms, and I think they were all taken before midnight," she said. "The snow is very good for our business. The slot machines are working very well. It is usually quiet this time of the year."

Danell Peterson and her family, who were traveling from Utah to San Diego on Wednesday, were among the guests.

"We had to stand in line for four hours just to get a room, and we got there around two o'clock in the afternoon," she said as she packed the family's Chevy Suburban.

The Petersons had found the drive from Las Vegas to Primm in a snowstorm difficult.

"We've made this trip so many times and never had any trouble before," she said.

At 5:45 a.m. Thursday, those difficulties were still apparent on the icy road. Many cars had been abandoned along the roadside, and one vehicle had spun out in the middle of the highway.

With so many travelers stopping Wednesday at Primm's three hotels, there was nowhere for other cars or trucks to park when hundreds of others tried to exit the interstate for the casinos early Thursday.

That's why, according to the Nevada Highway Patrol's Kevin Honea, authorities basically allowed parking on I-15 until it opened again Thursday about noon.

In the interstate's "parking lot" was 22-year-old Chase White, a Brigham Young University student who was driving from Provo, Utah to San Juan Capistrano, Calif. He was pained by more than the traffic.

"I've got an abscessed tooth," he said, holding his hand to his face. "I've got a dental appointment at three. I hope I make it."

Though in pain, White did not squeal. But a nearby parked truckload of pigs did, snorting and grunting repeatedly.

But what 56-year-old Bob Hazel of Orlando, Fla., smelled as he sat in his car on I-15 was not pigs.

It was something fishy going on in the universe.

"How can I be in the desert and find snow?" he said. "It doesn't make sense."

Contact reporter Paul Harasim at pharasim@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2908.