I'm right there with you!

Love my Speedplay Frogs and Specialized Taho MOUNTAIN shoes! I was really lucky in that I was hanging around some women with various types of clipless/cleated pedals and road and mountain shoes. After seeing someone demo her Speedplay Frogs (no moving parts! nothing to adjust! no little bits to jam or break!) I was hooked. Another women had feet like mine and loved her Tahos.

It was so helpful to see equipment and shoes being used in real life, and not just a salesman showing them to me in an LBS.