Man alive, that’s right in the middle of train wreck traffic junction.
My wife and I have a long-term legit bucket list item of staying at the nearby Spark/Hilton on 66 with a 3rd-4th floor balcony overlooking the road jammed full of bumper to bumper traffic to watch traffic all weekend, just so we can be happy that we’re not in said traffic once again.. We have spent more than one afternoon basically parked in that traffic over the years. One day we decided it would be more fun to be the people having a cold beer & waving from the motel balcony.
Seriously, it’s better around there than it used to be but Weekends will mean both crazy main road traffic on 4 lane plus plenty more going to the flea market next door. It will still be a fairly long ride to get to the dragon or anywhere else fun with no way to get there except going through all that traffic or getting on I-40 for a while. It would be a lot more fun if it was on the Smokey mountains side of civilization, but then they wouldn’t be a convenient location that’s basically one minute off the interstate.
Edit- our favorite place to stay in that area is a couple exits on I-40 east of the Motorcycle Inn at the Holiday Inn Express in Dandridge, TN. It’s right at exit, about the same as the motorcycle inn just up on hill. if you get a 3rd room floor on the back side of the motel, the view of the Smokies in the morning can be incredible as long as weather conditions agree. Tell them that’s what you want when you make reservation. There’s a Shoneys across the street for easy plain food & buffet, just 100 ft from motel. Nothing fancy but the motel is always nice and the view is great. It’s a comparable ride into the Dragon area or you can easily go east/souteast into TN & NC.
https://www.ihg.com/holidayinnexpress/hotels/us/en/dandridge/dandl/hoteldetail
