Made it home from my maiden voyage with cleats. I didn't fall over and found that, indeed, the pedaling is much more efficient. I wound up making a familiar loop about 2 mph faster than normal with clips and straps. Not sure whether that is the old placebo effect at work or whether the cleats and cycling shoes help that much. Time will tell.

It takes time to get good at clicking into the pedals with the cleats. I am still at the fumble and fuss stage but could see some improvement over time. It helped that I made a chalk mark on my shoe to indicate where the shoe and pedal axle were when the cleats were engaged. I'm getting so that I don't need to look at the foot as much now.

I suspect that after I have gotten a bit cocky, I will come up to a stop, try to pull back to disengage and majestically flop to one side or another. I hope nobody is watching when it happens; I'm sure it will.