Black, Howell Appear On Google Maps
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The Google Maps Street View imagery captured this picture of Herald Editor David Howell taking a picture of Joe Black waving as the Google car passed. To see the image, go to Google maps and click on the Street View on County Road 553 (road that goes to the Water Valley Landing boat ramp). Black and Howell are standing in front of the U.S. Corps of Engineers’ pavilion located across the road from the campground.
DAVE’S WORLD
By David Howell
I finally remembered to check Google Maps last week and found the images of Joe Black and me photobombing the Google Maps Street View car. Some readers may recall an August column when I wrote about Joe and me posing for the Street View car when it was making the rounds in the county. We had been to Sylva Rena to eat and spotted the little car with the big camera on top near Enid Lake. We got in front of it and posed as it passed.
I forgot all about it until last Thursday. I checked, and there we were for the whole world to see. The company captures this data using special Street View cars that have cameras to take photographs on public streets. The technology automatically blurs any faces or license plates in the imagery – but it is easy to recognize us.
Google Street View started in 2007 as a crazy idea to create a 360-degree map of the world using cars equipped with cameras. Google has since captured imagery for over 10 million miles around the world, and some of the random shots and photobombing are interesting.
I also wrote in that August column about a knife stuck in a pine tree on County Road 53 that we spotted several years earlier. Daryl Burney, Joe and I were heading down County Road 53, going the back way to the lake after dining at Sylva Rena, when I spotted the knife sticking in a pine tree a few feet off the road. To this day, Joe believes we planted the knife in the tree, but I can honestly say I have no idea who stuck the knife in it.
Joe Black waves to the Google car as it takes his picture a few months ago.
A few weeks after that August column, Daryl, Joe, Tommy Jones and I checked and it is still there. I pulled it out of the tree and took a few pictures, then stuck it back just like it was and we continue to speculate on its origin. The running joke is if the knife is ever linked to a crime, my fingerprints are all over it. It’s a cheap kitchen knife, hardly sufficient for poking someone, and I am guessing somebody stuck in the tree as a joke.
Changing topics, each fall the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) reminds motorists to be alert for deer. The advice comes as the number of reported collisions with deer across Mississippi increase each fall as the days get shorter, the temperature (hopefully) drops and deer movement increases. That movement will increase even more when the mating season gets underway next month, bucks will blindly cross the road running into your vehicle or the path of your vehicle.
In 2023, MDOT reported there were 4,333 reported deer-related crashes in Mississippi. That is an 8.1 percent increase from the previous year when there were 3,979 deer-vehicle collisions. This year there have already been over 2,023 deer-related crashes in the Magnolia State.
One of the most important tips shared by MDOT is don’t veer for deer. If a deer runs in front of a moving car, remain calm and brake firmly.
A knife stuck in the pine tree on County Road 53 remains a mystery.
This is advice I often share with my wife and others. If you are traveling at highway speeds, the single most important thing you can do is not swerve. Sounds like simple advice, but your first instinct is to yank the steering wheel when a deer suddenly appears in front of you.
Don’t do it.
Instead hit your brakes and go ahead and nail the deer instead of swerving, especially if you are traveling at highway speeds. Usually several thousand dollars can repair a vehicle damaged by a deer. Not so if you swerve and lose control, striking a tree or landing upside down.
My wife has always countered that her fear is the deer will come over the hood and through the windshield. That could happen, but the odds are probably slim.
So remember, don’t veer for deer!
