You should be able to find a good used road touring bike (Trucker, Fuji Touring, Randonee, etc.) on CL or Facebook for 1/2 that. One thing that would sway me toward the 1.1 is disc brakes. I had a rim brake Trucker, and now have a Fuji touring disc, and like the disc brakes much more as they offer a lot of confidence. More @Wikipedia
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