Okay, the last one doesn’t occur with regularity, but it did happen to a couple and their infant child in Massachusetts this week. The couple was so helplessly lost in the Connors Farm corn maze in Danvers that they dialed 911 and had to be rescued. By a police K-9 unit.

My first thought upon hearing this news was, “Wow — that’s quite the corn maze.” My second thought was, “If only that lost-in-a-corn-maze couple had a MapQuest app on their smartphone…”

Which is a good point in the story for me to introduce myself. My name is Lance Gould, and I’m the new editorial director of MapQuest. MapQuest is one of the most recognized and trusted brands on the web, and now we’re going to be bringing our readers editorial that can entertain and inform them while still allowing them to get the excellent navigational experiences that they’ve come to expect from MapQuest.

Our first foray into original content is a fall-foliage package called LeafQuest. In this effort, we’ve selected 150 of the most colorful leaf-peeping spots in the whole country. That’s three per state. (Well, 49 states — sorry, tropical Hawaii! — but with Washington, D.C. as a reliable stand in. It’s complicated.)

Each state gets an article providing information on the three fall-foliage spots therein, including links to the official websites of those places; a navigable map demarcating the three leaf-rich spots with pinpoints; and a video showcasing glorious fall-foliage in that state.

Also in the package are three feature essays on autumn. by such esteemed writers as Joyce Millman, a two-time Pulitzer nominee; James Parker, the entertainment columnist for The Atlantic; and Chuck Pfarrer, an ex-Navy SEAL and best-selling memoirist, who has a new book out now on the inside mission to kill Osama bin-Laden. That’s right — we have a fall-foliage story written by a rough-and-ready Navy Seal — that’s just how we roll.

Stay tuned for other great content from MapQuest. Next up is FrightQuest, our Halloween package. And yes, Hawaii, for that one, we’ve got you covered.

–Lance Gould