No, not a bad topic at all really. You could save someone from making the same mistake.

I myself bought some Orvis Encounter wading shoes. Light weight, very comfy shoes, and I am actually happy with them. But instead of placing aluminum studs in the bottom of the shoes, I bought those Rock Treads instead. Great product I admit, yes they are.....but.

The pattern on the rubber soles of my shoes doesn't quite work with these Rock Treads. I can get it to work, but not like I really want. The placing of the disks on these shoes isn't going to be the best, but it's all I have right now, so I will have to make due.

So my advice is this, if you wade in the rivers and want good gripping on your shoes climbing over rocks, Rock Treads are great. Just get shoes that where the areas where you place the studs are spaced apart enough that the Rock Tread disks will fit well. There are three different sized disks, and you can manipulate them to fit whatever pattern sole you have. But the Orvis Encounter shoes are not user friendly with this product. Great shoes though.

Yeah, your story is going to be a tough one to beat. That just plain stinks about what you went through. I suppose I could have told the story of buying a Jeep for my son for his first car from a fellow work mate. $1,500 cash, and the first year he drove it maybe a dozen times because of a short somewhere. Spent $2,000 trying to get it fixed, but no one could find the issues. New starter, neutral safety switch, battery, ignition switch, all have been replaced. That led to trying to find the short somewhere between the starter relay and starter. Nope, not doing it.

It ended well though. Put up a sign in the neighborhood saying, " $3.00 a swing, and we have the sledge hammer." Oh, that was a fun day indeed for everyone. People from all over the neighborhood coming over taking multiple swings, releasing their stress. It was a good day. I mean, who doesn't like smashing a car with a sledge?

My son made enough money, with help from dear old dad, to get himself a really nice Toyota Highlander.

What about my work mate you ask? Well, he has been pretty much been blackballed by the entire crew, because he has taken advantage of others here.

Still, not as bad as what you got yourself into, and I hope you got out of it clean.