Cow Spa

The day dawned crisp and cool, and we were up and about to see it. We broke camp at Little Sioux Park in Correctionville, Iowa and pressed westward.

We were a little bit skeptical on our way into Correctionville, to be perfectly honest. Was it a prison town? Did they still put people in the stocks in the town square to make an example of them? Was caning not only legal but condoned?

It turns out none of these theories about the origin of the city with the most letters in a single name in Iowa were true. Correctionville is the location that land surveyors made a correction in the north-south county road  alignment during the settlement period. The reason for the necessary “jog” in the main street of the town was to make parcels of land approximately equal in area. Surveyors at the time were using straight line optical instruments, and since the earth is a sphere, eventually a correction in the north-south grid lines defining property boundaries must be made to keep the parcels of land approximately equal in size.

The people in Correctionville were warm and welcoming as the people we’ve met throughout the entire journey. They shared the history of the town with us, and there’s quite a lot of pride in both the length of the name and the reason they have it.

We moved on toward the border of Iowa and Nebraska, but we didn’t quite make that line of demarcation today. Hopefully, soon.

Cow Spa - Woodbury County, Iowa

Along the way, we happened upon a herd of cows splashing around in what they must think of as their own personal spa. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t begrudge the cows their fun, but I’m glad that we don’t wash our own feet in our drinking water. 

As we passed, the herd noticed and galloped alongside the fence. I suppose they’ve learned that people on foot must mean food. Whatever the reason, they jogged along with us for about a half a mile. It was just the sort of simple thing to put a smile on your face as you took one more step forward.

Hope your Monday was as good as the one those cows seemed to be having!