FRIDAY 11:30am

The sign must have been placed prematurely because there was still another painful mountain to walk over before I would ever set foot in town. No worries, this was the home stretch, and I almost forgot about the medical condition fermenting inside my boots when I reached the topmost part of the trail and caught a glimpse of the entire town sprawled out below like some giant bear rug on a castle floor.

I pushed my little legs as hard as I could. The trail turned into a street with a whole bunch of homey homes on either side. Maybe I’d raise my kids here, who knows? One really nice one caught my attention. It was atop a cliff and had this wooden gate with a buzzer and a microphone. I was really tempted to ring up the owner and tell him he had the most beautiful house in Corte Madera but realized that he’d probably call the cops on me without thinking twice. Instead I continued walking down the street and after a mile or so finally made it to the main part of town.