Ruby Should Have Been a Sheepdog.

Ruby likes to spread Bonnie's basket of dog toys out all over the house.

She may spread her toys all over, but she likes to keep her pack of humans herded together. She hates it when one of us goes outside to do something and leaves her behind in the gated front courtyard. She communicates with very specific sounding barks and her "how dare you go without me bark" is painfully sharp and persistent, similar to her  "there is something under the couch I want" or her "my water bowl is empty" bark, and equally as annoying. 

First thing Monday morning, we loaded the dogs in the truck and took a leisurely country drive to visit a friend of Bonnie's in Santa Teresa, New Mexico about 45 minutes south of Las Cruces. Santa Teresa is a suburb of El Paso, Texas and we ate our Carl's Jr. charbroiled burgers in an El Paso park, while Ruby and Buster stretched their legs (and lifted them).

A stretch of the road canopied by a grove of pecan trees.

The pecan trees create a colorful tunnel. 

This is something you don't see in Iowa!

We stopped by a cotton field so Cray could take photos. Ruby sniffed around and found a good spot to pee. Cray snagged a piece of cotton to examine closer, while Bonnie and I kept a nervous eye on the farmer working nearby, fearing he might come after her for stealing his crop! Bonnie shared that the New Mexico State University in Las Cruces (where she previously taught sign language) has an agricultural research program working to improve cotton production. 

Admittedly, the swiped cotton was pretty cool to dissect.

Rural New Mexico and small town Iowa seem to share similar economic struggles. We passed through small towns with boarded up businesses and empty parking lots, neighborhoods and rural landscapes scattered with pristine houses next to crumbling ones, towns where traditionally built family homes are replaced by more affordable pre-manufactured ones ..... and where the evidence of a poverty is palpable. 

The San Miguel Catholic Church.

Cray got out of the truck on the way back to Las Cruces to take photos of this Catholic church rightly named after the small town where it exist.  The church's Facebook page promotes their "back by popular demand" homemade gordita’s which they appear to sell often as a Parish fundraiser.  Bonnie shared a bite of her gordita with me recently and it tasted amazing. I searched "what is a gordita" and found this: "The gordita - which translates to "chubby one" or "little fat one" - is a pastry made with Masa (cornmeal dough) and stuffed with cheese, meat, or other filling."

Don’t you want to eat a gordita now?