Do you like maps?  How about aerial photos?  These can be wonderful tools when looking for a home.  Take Google Maps for example.  You can enter an address, such as 1920 Lohman's Crossing 78734, and get a street map, an aerial photo or a hybrid, which shows the aerial with street names.  If you're used to looking down from an airplane window when leaving or arriving at a city, you know how things look from above.  Google Maps, as well as other similar sites, allow you to look down as you would from a plane.  You can zoom in or out and you can also click on the map and drag it into different positions.  You can literally follow a road to and from a school or neighborhood.

Microsoft has a really fun tool called Live Local Search.  You can input an address and go to it with a map or aerial.  Unlike Google, this site uses aerial photos instead of satellite images.  So when you zoom in you can ger unbelievably close.  You can also use a tool that will show you a different perspective.  For example, you can see the property from north, south, east or west in many cases.  As with anything, there are limitations with this, but play with it - it is fun.

Keep in mind that both Google and Microsoft have better resolution (you can zoom in more) in cities than in rural areas.