The discussion thread "who is watching you who are watching insulators" prompted me to post these pictures.

Back in early November during our 7,000 mile Gurnee, IL - Santa Fe – Las Vegas – Grand Canyon – San Diego – Sequoia National Park – North Park, CO – Laramie – Cheyenne – back home – or bust tour, we spent the night at Vernal, UT. The next morning on the way to Walden, CO, I spotted a two-pair open wire line east of Vernal along side of and crossing US-40. I pulled the rig off the road and was merrily snapping pictures from the truck when a county sheriff's deputy stopped alongside and very politely asked if we were having a problem. When we assured him that we were fine, he smiled, waved, and drove off.

This contrasts with our experience in Northern Ireland. In Derry (aka Londonderry if you are an Orangeman), I snapped pictures of insulators with no problem ([id=94086756] and [id=94086515]). However, our tour guide warned us NOT to take any pictures of the British guard towers. He'd had an earlier experience where a couple of SAS guys had emerged from a tower and confiscated cameras from tourists who, against advice, were taking pictures of the towers. By the time we were there in May of 2002, things were much more peaceful. It was still sobering to see the blast walls around the police station in Armagh and elsewhere.

The first picture is our rig, parked in Vernal, UT. The rest were taken a few miles east of Vernal. This two-pair line crossed the road right where the second picture was taken. I was changing my camera lens when the sheriff's deputy briefly stopped.

Several of the pictures show clear glass being used on one pair, and Hemi blue glass on the other. Wonder if this was because they were installed at different times? The blue-green insulators appear to be Hemi 42 CD 154s. I can't tell about drip points. The clear insulators have the shoulders of a CD 155.

You can get an idea how rugged, desolate, and beautiful this country is by looking at the backgrounds. In the last picture, please note the line marching off into the distance, dwarfed by the hills. Just imagine the effort to build and maintain a line under these conditions!