I don't know how much help this might be, but I've got a little trick for as I'm starting back up or for some other reason have one foot unclipped. I don't know how this would work for road shoes, but with the mountain shoes, I'm going to guess that it doesn't matter what kind -- that tread stuff on the bottom is handy!

I put the ARCH area of the unclipped foot on the pedal for those few moments of starting up, or otherwise needing the pedal for a wee bit when you don't want that foot clipped in. It means it's free, and also, the starting moments are usually more tense, so I can postpone making sure my foot's in the right place and the clip and cleat catch properly until, oh, say, I'm through the intersection and rolling smoothly in the bike lane again, rather than where there are cars on all four sides of me at once, and I'm hoping that none of them will decide they REALLY want the space I'm in at exactly that moment!

(the "Walmart exit ramp" I have to bike through on occasion is a GREAT example of the tense moments! Nothing like people wanting to get to Walmart NOW!!! to raise the old heart rate! They're behind on both the right and left, and sometimes they cut over from three lanes away when they realize where they meant to go! The bike lane goes in a straight line, but the traffic lanes... This one's spooky in a CAR!)

Karen in Boise