By JILL MCNEAL
6 News Anchor/Reporter
MARYVILLE (WATE) - Businesses near the famous Dragon roadway in Blount County are looking forward to a wonderful weekend.
A section along US 129 has been closed since mid-March because of a rockslide, but crews say repairs are almost complete.
The winding mountain road is well-known among motorcycle riders and sports car drivers looking for a thrill.
"The last couple of months have been terrible," said Peggy Reynolds, manager at Punkin Center Motorcycle Resort in Maryville. "Not no business, but it's about 90% to 95% down from last year."
But all of that is about to change, since word spread throughout the country that Blount County access to the Dragon is expected to reopen sometime this weekend.
"We have rented our whole motel, our hostel which holds eight people and all of our cabins within two hours," Reynolds said.
This will be their first full house in months.
"We've got just 10 people here right now," she said.
Rick McMahon and his family and friends from Fort Lauderdale make up most of that group.
"We drove the Cherohala Skyway. We did the Devil's Triangle the first day," McMahon said.
But of course, like everyone else, they really came to ride the Dragon.
"We were kind of hoping that they were going to get it open early. Everything indicated on the Internet that they would," he said.
They're scheduled to leave Saturday morning, so Friday will be their last chance.
Contractor Pacific Blasting & Demolition Ltd. gets a $136,500 bonus if the road opens Friday.
"Oh, I hope it does. We'll be there," McMahon said.
And it seems, so will everyone else, which is a big relief for businesses here.
"I don't think we'll really ever make it up, but the future looks better," Reynolds said. "Our customers we have that have been coming every year for seven or eight years, it makes them happy and when they're happy, we're happy."
236 truck loads of rock were removed from the site just last week. Crews next tackled installing the guard rail as well as paving and striping the roadway.
