![\"June](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/coast-to-coast-20210527-TE-1237-300x200.jpg\")
Every year since 2006, some combination of UConn medical and dental students formed a team, chose a cause, flew to the west coast, and started a 3,500-mile tour back home. They would pedal by day and at night they would sleep in tents at campgrounds or the property of agreeable strangers, or in beds at the occasional motel, the homes friends and family who happened to be along the route, or, in more recent years, spare bedrooms of people who offer their homes for touring cyclists through a network known as \u201cWarm Showers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like many things in 2020, last year\u2019s trip required some variation, becoming \u201cHouse to House for a Cause,\u201d with a modified itinerary that kept the students mostly in New England, stopping in the yards of classmates, friends, and faculty for socially distant visits and support.<\/p>\n
This year, Estanislau and Chu are taking it back to a cross-country ride. They\u2019ll fly to Seattle June 8, make their way to Anacortes, Washington, to pick up their bikes, and start heading east on June 10.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone told me there\u2019s no amount of training you can fully do to completely prepare for this,\u201d Chu says. \u201cThe first couple of weeks will just whip you into shape because it\u2019s all mountains, then after that it\u2019ll be smooth sailing. But it\u2019s really beautiful, you just need to appreciate it, and be aware that you\u2019re going to be uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neither student claims to have distance biking experience. Estanislau was on the swim team for all four of her years at Ithaca College. Chu, who graduated from UConn\u2019s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences last year with a dual undergraduate degree in Spanish and physiology and neurobiology, says she was more into music than sports. Both have been fitting in rides and cardiovascular workouts as their academic schedules have permitted.<\/p>\n
\u201cEver since I got my bike and I\u2019ve been on the road, the freedom of just biking on the road and seeing beauty around you and breathing in the air, it\u2019s just such a great feeling,\u201d Estanislau says. \u201cAnd so I\u2019m really looking forward to having that while also seeing places I\u2019ve never seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like many of their predecessors, the way home is known as the Northern Tier bike route, which will take them through the northern border states.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just really enjoy being outside and being on the bike, it\u2019s a very, very liberating feeling,\u201d Chu says. \u201cI am excited to see the country. I haven\u2019t been to most of the northern states. And I think just the physical challenge of it is something that I\u2019m excited for.\u201d<\/p>\n
They\u2019ll also keep with tradition and maintain a blog to document their adventures along the way, at coast2coast2021.wordpress.com<\/a>, as well as post photos to Instagram, @uconncoast2coast2021.<\/p>\n