Winter weekends at our house upstate are always magical for me—it doesn’t matter if it’s freezing or foggy, snowy or raining. Because so many shopkeepers turn into snowbirds and head south for the winter, it’s only the diehards who stay around, and it’s a chance to catch up before most of the weekenders arrive.
Recently our friends at Audi asked us to test drive their all-new Q3 for the weekend, and of course we said yes! We had just come back from Japan, so—very jet lagged—we hit the road at 7am to get a jump start on the weekend, heading towards our place in Sullivan County. Since we were too early for our favorite farm, Blooming Hill, and our buddies at La Salumina had taken the month off, we stopped instead at our local Cider Mill, which not only has a fantastic curation of provisions from local producers, but also the loveliest homewares, from baskets to candlesticks. There’s a wood-burning fireplace, which keeps it cozy, and their hot apple cider continued that cozy vibe the whole way home.
It turned out to be a super foggy day, so we drove our zippy Q3 to the Delaware River and parked it riverside so we could take a walk on River Road, a favorite of all the locals, especially in winter, because it’s plowed. In other seasons, we might have driven over the hill and through the woods to Livingston Manor, a quaint little town known for its excellent fly-fishing, which has a great bookstore and one of our favorite pizza restaurants, The Kaatskeller. Or we’d head downriver on one of the area’s most excellent roads to drive on: the Upper Delaware Scenic Byway—a 70-mile stretch of NY State Route 97, which goes from Hancock to Port Jervis and runs through the sweet town of Narrowsburg. This area is so great for day trips, and we wrote about all of our (and our friends’) favorites in our Sullivan County List.
We loved our weekend date with the Q3—from the very cool feature where you swing your foot under the car to automatically open the back (great for us since we are always antiquing with both hands maxed out), to how comfortable and spacious it is… but it drives so nimbly and more like a sports car. We’ll say yes to it anytime!
This post was created in partnership with Audi USA.
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