A Cowboy is a Cattle Guard.(road sign humor in New Mexico)

Michelle Behr and Neal W. Ackerly report on roadside humor of Southwestern New Mexico

The New Mexico Bootheel is the kind of place where, whether they know each other or are total strangers, passing drivers wave to each other from the cabs of their pickups. It is rural, isolated, rugged. The Bootheel has also long been a place for renegades and scoundrels. Because of its isolation and rugged terrain, it has served as a haven for outlaws, smugglers, and bellicose Indians on the lam from both Federales and Uncle Sam's finest.

The Bootheel is located in Hidalgo