I ride buses for hours just to end up right where I started...story of my life

It definitely took me longer this morning that I anticipated to pack and begin my hike. It was 10 am when I made it down to reception to check out and grab a container of orange juice and a muffin. I decided the beach wasn't worth walking on (too many spots with impassible cliffs), so I walked on the side of the highway from Goff Island to Crystal Cove State Park, which is where I saw the highway sign announcing I was less than 4 miles to Newport Harbor. I kept walking. I walked up asphalt hills with no sidewalks and overgrown bushes bending into the street. I walked past men working in gardens of beautiful homes, past one gated community and then another, before the left side of the highway suddenly balanced oh so precariously on the edge of a cliff with Crystal Cove State Park and its magnificent sandy beach directly below me. As I walked, hugging the guardrail, trying to concentrate on the sandy beach so far below me, I passed 15 black and hispanic men in jumpsuits with the letters CDC printed on them. Each man held a pulaski and worked the little bit of grass on the steep slope beside me. I nervously passed each man, hoping none of them were truly hardened criminals. Not long after that, I tired of walking on the highway, and caught the #1 bus. The bus driver said he had never seen anyone waiting at that bus stop. I believe it...that spot is sort of in the middle of nowhere. I rode the bus 1.25 miles to Poppy Avenue, just south of Corona del Mar. I followed the very scenic residential roads of: Poppy Avenue, Ocean Boulevard, Fern Leaf Avenue, and Bayside Drive. I then walked the Pacific Coast Highway shoulder and caught a series of buses: #1, 57, 55, 1 again, and 47 in an attempt to find a cheap place to stay for the evening. Ultimately it took 4 hours of waiting for/riding buses to end up less than a mile from where I started looking. I end up sleeping at the very rundown, yet overpriced (due to its incredible location) Little Inn by the Bay. It costs $109 and is located right off of Balboa Boulevard, sandwiched between Newport Bay and the Pacific Ocean on a narrow peninsula of land 2 streets wide. Despite the bus ride, I end up having a total walking milage of 15.125 miles. I settle into my room at sundown (6:40 pm) and eat the free microwave popcorn for my dinner and I watch CSI until 11 pm and sleep until 8 am. There is no deadbolt on my door, so I put a chair (not tall enough to actually be effective) in front of the door and listen to the loud voices and noises outside of my motel room all night long. Today marks the first day that I missed mileage...having missed that 1.25 miles of highway. I decide that I gave it a valiant effort and sleep well knowing I am heading farther away tomorrow.

As I passed each man in his orange jumpsuit, I thought who looks stranger me or them on the side of this highway