Looks to be an arid, hilly area. Golf course, north-south highway, large recreation area with several swimming pools, canal running roughly north-west/south-east, decent sized population. Residential areas seem to be in localized developements, not a lot of traffic on the highway. More to come....
Congratulations Dave Porter. Pocatello, Idaho I see Dave's a new member and gave us no clues on how he did it, but he did it. Dave, the contest winner badge has been applied to your signature, but you would have to set your preferences to show your signature for it to be seen.
I am a geographer by trade and work with aerial photographs. The area was arid, in North America, with an important locomotive maintenance facility, the freeway was north south. There is an surface irrigation source. I knew where most of the western locomotive maintenance facilities of that size are. My first choice was Winslow, AZ, but I knew that the freeway was east west and no sizable irrigation canal, my second choice was Pocatello.
Congratulations, Dave. Nice geo-sleuthing. It's interesting to hear the technique a skilled geographer uses. I've got lucky in a couple of the early contests, and I think it was just because I like to study maps and old atlas photos which helped me understand the clues to look for. After finding nothing in Utah, I had just finished viewing Winslow, Arizona myself and found nothing similar (nor a girl in a flatbed Ford) when the dreaded bluescreen came up on my laptop again for the third time while using Google Earth in one of these contests. I ran diagnostics to reconfigure memory after the first two times but now I'm concerned that perhaps Google Earth's streaming video isoverloading the video card processor. My laptop is a four year old Gateway with a 64 bit Video card. Is anyone else familiar with a problem like this?
My guess is check the GE website, and check the min. system requirements for your machine; if it meets or exceeds, cool, if not, then I don't recommend working with GE on your machine.
If GE doesn't work on your machine, you can alsways use Google Maps, http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF-8&tab=wl It has both map and satellite views. Dan
My old computer used to have this problem using either Google Earth or Google Maps, but IIRC, it ONLY happened when I had Firefox running. Try closing everything but Google Earth when using it (yup, I know, it sucks to have to close the contest thread while trying to solve the contest) or use google maps in IE if you're not already.
I have always had problems with Google Maps and Earth. But then thats the joy of laptops and specialized drivers. I use Yahoo maps on my Laptop and since then the Blue Screen of Death has been noticeably absent.
Thanks for the suggestions, all. I'm right now sitting on the deck of a beach house in Long Beach Island, NJ, (had to come here for a wedding, how tough is that?) reading my email and checking web sites on my best friend Ibook G4. After playing with this little beauty, I'm thinking I'll buy one and use that old Gateway for a boat anchor... ok, maybe a small kayak... But since he doesn't have Google Earth loaded, I'll have to take a pass on the contests until next week. Darn, I finally have some free time and I can't play!