alaskatoflorida.com

The two college students didn’t just do this for kicks: Larsen wanted to find something he could do to raise money to donate to cystic fibrosis research.

“I’ve got four cousins with cystic fibrosis and growing up, one of them passed away due to complications with the disease,” Larsen said. “I’ve always wanted to bike across the country so just one day last fall, it hit me that I was going to do it. It was weird. I was walking home from class and I was a little frustrated with school and I realized I was going to bike across the country that year.”

After talking with Larsen, Gardunia decided to join him in his cross-country trip, which would last nearly four months.

“It sounded like fun, and I didn’t want to go to school anyway,” Gardunia said. “My family thought it was pretty neat.”

Larsen and Gardunia set a goal to raise $10,000 by the end of the trip, which began on Sept. 15, 2006. They started a Web site, www.alaskatoflorida.com, and handed out fliers along the journey informing people about it so they could make donations online. During the four months of travel, they were able to raise $5,500.

Cystic fibrosis is an inherited chronic disease that affects the lungs and digestive system of about 30,000 children and adults in the United States, according to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Web site.

“The life expectancy [for someone with cystic fibrosis] is 36 years, which is a great improvement,” Larsen said. “Just a couple of decades ago, the average was in the early teens. They’ve made vast improvements. They have actually cured this disease in the laboratory, but they can’t figure out how to deliver that to the human system without destroying the cure. They’re so close. That’s why donations are important. Anything we can do to help will move them one step closer to success.”

Larsen remembers the difficulties that his cousins have faced while battling the disease. When he was 12 years old, his cousin Lexi Ross passed away after her body began to reject her double lung transplant.

“I was only 12, but I remembered how unafraid she was, she was just at peace,” Larsen said. “That stuck with me, that she was courageous in the face of death. So a lot of times, when the ride has gotten tough, I think about her courage and faith and realize I have no reason to complain.”

Lexi’s sister, Sharli, also has cystic fibrosis. She is currently 27 years old, married and five months pregnant, which Larsen says is phenomenal.

Along the trail, Larsen and Gardunia were interviewed by approximately 30 newspapers and 10 news stations that wanted to hear their story.

“We’d usually call them the day before we got there and almost always they were there, ready to meet us,” Larsen said. “They loved the idea that these kids were biking from Alaska.”

Larsen and Gardunia both agreed that the people they met along the way showed incredible kindness and generosity to them when they found out what they were doing and the cause behind it.

Often, strangers would donate money or food to Larsen and Gardunia.

“It’s been so cool. As soon as people find out what we’re doing, they’re interested in us, they want us to tell them the whole story,” Larsen said. “Just this morning, someone took us out to breakfast. We had talked to them for one minute and they told us to go with them to breakfast. It was just an old couple from New York on vacation. Honestly, it’s been that way the whole time. It’s been so rejuvenating. We haven’t met anyone in almost 6,000 miles who has been unkind to us. In Mobile, Ala., an LDS family that we ran into invited us over for Thanksgiving. It was really amazing. They gave us a place to stay, they took us out to the family farm and we had a huge Thanksgiving dinner.”

Larsen said that often the trip got tough, especially on windy days. Almost every day the two students faced headwinds as they traveled, due to the time of year and the shifting seasons.
“It really wears on you. You wake up in the morning, you open your eyes and you realize you have to bike 90 miles against 20-mile-an-hour winds,” Larsen said. “It’s just physical and mental torture because you can’t really stop. If you relax and pedal lightly, you’ll come to a standstill. So you just put your head down and grit your teeth and push hard.”

Students are able to make donations if they so desire, by visiting the Web site, which includes several pictures taken throughout the trip.

“If people give a little bit, we would be very obliged and thankful,” said Larsen.