My wife has one, 'bout the same vintage as hodamike's wife's - the sora shifters gave up the ghost, but the newer ones have Tiagra which are better theoretically (I'm a fan of bar ends these days). We did a week in the San Juans with hers, the only comment being we should have had a front rack to balance it a bit better. The current ones have a threadless headset that some folks are against in a tourer, but overall. If it's too low hookup with an IRD riser stem, & away ya go. If that's not 'nuff get a stem extender, & away ya go. The only complaint my wife's had so far is that the front rack mounts are only on the outside of the for so she can't use the Tubus Duo (she was so annoyed 'bout this she went with just the backs - made things a tetch twitchier then she'd have preferred.) - I think she'd be a bit happier with slightly lower gearing as well. I am planning on swapping her chain rings down a peg at some point before our next trip.

My current ride is the Surly LHT - I traded my Trek 520 (another great touring bike) for it due to a series of remarkable coincidences, & a friendly fella almost exactly my height, but of slightly different geometry. - I recommend all of the above, & for the aforementioned geometry reasons say go ride 'em all :-)