Howdy all. If this was already covered I apologize. I am new to the forum, but have gotten lots of support, so thanks!
I am in the IT field, I live on a computer - in fact I have 3 screens before me, 2 behind me, 1 PC and 2 Macs on my desk. I use Google Earth a lot for scouting areas and Google Maps for plotting courses. One thing I have found, and maybe ya'll know this, but Yahoo's beta maps program has much better zoom photos of rural areas.
If you use Google Earth or Google Maps, and you see an area that's has a square overlay on the satellite view, you know you can zoom all the way in for a close-up. In most rural areas however, you can only get close enough for a high-level shot, then it gets blurry.
If this is the case, visit
http://maps.yahoo.com/beta and be sure to type the /beta. It's still rough, you can drag the map with your mouse and it's a bit jumpy. It does however have a great selection of maps on the satellite that allows you to zoom farther than Google maps on many rural areas.
Enjoy!
Jamie