I rode around a beautiful Fuji Touring bike for years and loved it. After that bike, I started to ride track bikes and love their aggressive geometry, and in the mean time the fuji was converted to a single speed as the compnentry gave out. The frame was since messed up by a taxi cab and now I only have agressive frames.
I like the touring ride but honestly found the fuji (s-10-s for reference) to be too long and spongey.
I bought the cyclocross bike for quite a bit less than any of the touring bikes I was looking at at the LBSes. Cheap enough to more than cover a used touring frame should I feel the CC is not sufficient. I will have to do some testing with borrowed racks and panniers over the next few months. If its hopeless I may just break down and buy a BoB. Again, thanks for all your informative input. You've raised questions I may never have asked myself.