Glad you had a fun ride! Even better no dog gnawing on you.

I find I can go between my road and mountain bike effortlessly with shifting but I cannot go between SRAM and Shimano without being confused! So you are not alone, I didn't want Shimano shifters on a mountain bike because I had really learned to ride with SRAM (although my first bike had Shimano) and I didn't want to be confused.