Regional forecasts this weekend are calling for skies so perfect, they'd make a cowboy cry.

But if you think you're hightailing it off to Memorial Park with your road bike to do a couple laps around the Picnic Loop, you've got another think coming, partner.

The bike trails near the Bayou are still open to riders and runners (although the area isn't open to unauthorized vehicle traffic), but you might need to consider whether or not you'll spook the horses.

Yes, seriously.

Because aside from the weather being so good you could spit, we're only three days away from a Texan's most wonderful time of the year — why, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, we do reckon.

If you're trying to mosey on through the area south of Memorial Drive at the park on Friday and Saturday, you might find yourself in the midst of a scene you don't recognize.

Unless you normally hear the sounds of faint whinnying accompanied by whiffs of pungent dung, with trailers and pickup trucks lining the road as far as the eye can see, that is.

Oh, and don't forget about the cowboys roasting a pig over an open flame at 10:30 a.m. on a Friday morning. Because that how the rodeo rolls.

You can't deny it. The temperature of Rodeo fever is rising, and we're all about to catch it.

"The trail rides (began) arriving around 12:30 p.m. on Friday afternoon," said Cyndy Garza-Roberts, director of public affairs for H-E-B, and a member of the rodeo's public relations subcommittee.

You read that right. Despite the park roads being ringed with four-wheeled vehicles galore, at 10:30 a.m., not a single trail ride had arrived. We can only imagine how crowded it's about to get, as they coast down major thoroughfares into their campsite and party den at Memorial Park throughout the afternoon.

"But the real fun will get started around 5 p.m.," Garza-Roberts said.

That's when all 13 of the different trail rides, bringing more than 3,000 riders, will officially convene at Memorial Park Friday night for the awards ceremony and raucous cowboy and cowgirl camaraderie.

"Things should be back to normal in Memorial Park around 3 p.m. on Saturday afternoon," Garza-Roberts said.

But the rodeo fun's only just begun.

Are you ready for some rodeo? Yee-haw!