Confidences of travelers | On a motorcycle, through the desert

Traveling is like riding on a mountain road. But among the ups and downs, there will always be those indelible memories that you carry with you all your life. The Press recounts the adventures, big or small, of fearless travellers. Today: a couple who crisscrossed southwestern Arizona on motorcycles and without a fixed route.

Sonia Lizotte and Sylvain Rouleau have always liked to travel according to their desires, without planning their stops or the route of their wanderings. Here as well as abroad. And even with children.

“On a day-to-day basis, everything is so always organized – a meeting at such a time, a business at such a time… So on vacation, if you want to go to such a place, you go there that day; if not, we go elsewhere. In Arizona, precisely, we met another couple who told us that we had to go to Tortilla Flat. We hadn’t thought of going there at all, but we ended up doing it and it was great,” says Sonia Lizotte.

In addition, on a motorcycle, it is the weather that dictates the decisions above all, she adds. Thus, during their two-week trip to Arizona in January, since it was colder than normal at that time, they avoided certain mountainous areas where the mercury went down to 2°C.

The only reservation they made before taking the plane was for the two nights at the hotel where they had to pick up their motorcycle on the way there (delivered by truck from Drummondville) and drop it off on the way back, very close to the airport. “Otherwise, between the two, we hadn’t planned anything,” says Sonia Lizotte.

The choice to have their motorbike transported to their destination was self-evident: “It’s more expensive to rent a motorbike there and you’re driving around with a motorbike that you don’t know well. It’s important to be comfortable with driving. In addition, we have a big comfortable motorcycle, ”she explains.

Unexpected discoveries

They may travel light and take advantage of the laundries available to customers in hotels, but they still make sure to always have water, dry snacks and a “just in case” kit with them.

“On a motorcycle, it was our first trip without an itinerary outside the country; we did all of Quebec on a motorcycle with zero reservations and zero itineraries. Last summer, we went as far as Niagara; we never planned to cross the border, but we always bring our passport just in case, she laughs. In the car, we have always done this since we travel – in France, in Italy, in Costa Rica…”

She also remembers that during this trip to Costa Rica with their two children, they met with a woman who lived in a palm grove. “We ate tamales in his house, on a dirt floor with a rooster walking among us. Then the children bathed with his in the river. They still talk to me about it and it’s been 15 years! »

This is how she was able to make delicious culinary discoveries in Arizona – a dream vacation for anyone working in the culinary world.

“We ate in a lot of Mexican restaurants because we came down really close to the border. There’s a place where they made us a Mexican salsa at the table, in a mortar, with the fresh ingredients in front of us; it was happiness,” she recalls.

There is also this restaurant in Yuma, the Desert Penguin, where she tasted “the best burger patty” of her life; this visit to a Medjool date plantation, where they feasted; or even this “absolutely divine” tuna jerky, discovered in Parker.

With this positive experience, they dream of covering more of Route 66 on a motorcycle. But their next vacation plan may well start in Florida, where they’ll pick up their motorcycle before following the water’s edge to Louisiana. To be continued.