Summer has just ended and autumn has just started. The first day of this new season was this past Saturday, Sept. 22. Most of us are likely to describe the season as “fall of the year.”

Here in the Tri-State community, we might join the poet Mary E. Linton in declaring “Autumn is timed for little country roads and hearts attuned to travel at their pace…” There seem to be endless roads calling the adventuresome. Some of them are obvious, some more or less obscure. If you follow Friday Night Football or the high school soccer games, you probably know all the roads that lead to all those games this fall.

In addition, there are Tri-State roads that lead to some other exciting sights and sounds in the week ahead. For example, how about the roads that lead to Pine Mountain State Park and Laurel Cove? There, on Thursday and Sunday evenings the religious drama “The Book of Job” is being presented by the Middlesborough Little Theatre. This will conclude the outdoor performances of the biblical story of Job.

Another example of roads that will lead to exploration and enjoyment, especially for hikers, is Sand Cave Road. It’s located within the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, just off Highway 58 in Ewing. Park Ranger Lucas Wilder will lead hikers from there, starting at 9 a.m. on Saturday, on the “White Rocks Ascension Hike.” From the massive White Rocks to the celebrated Sand Cave, hikers will complete a nine-mile round trip that includes a spectacular view of the Powell Valley and the landscape beyond. Contact the Park’s Visitor Center if you have questions about the hike.

Consider a quotation from a famed American writer if you are a bit hesitant about that nine- mile hike. Sue Grafton wrote, “I’ve never known anyone yet who doesn’t suffer a certain restlessness when autumn rolls around. We’re all 8 years old again and anything is possible.”

Grafton is remembered for her detective novels with titles that spanned the alphabet and for her delight in the new season that is ours to applaud.

And, if you take familiar roads to Lincoln Memorial University at Harrogate on Monday, Oct. 1, you can applaud Hub New Music in a free concert featuring flute, clarinet, violin and cello. The performance starts at 7:30 p.m. in the Sam and Sue Mars Performing Arts Center in Duke Hall on the LMU campus. Barely into the introduction of a new season, we begin to see it as Denis Waitley, a best-selling author and motivational speaker, wrote “…the season for enjoying the fullness of life …” fullness of life …”