JM2C: I'm past the point in my life where motorcycling is about what you ride. Now, it's more about the camaraderie with friends, the adventure, the trip. There are a lot of good choices out there, with more reliability - Indian, Yamaha tourers, BMW K1600B, the new Goldwings.
There's something I call "confidence of reliability" that HD just can't seem to deliver. With the problems you've had (one post on this site said a guy's been thru six engines on his M8) would you really feel confident about taking that 2,000+ mile bike trip...or would you constantly be worried your engine is going to ruin the trip?
Hope you get this worked out - but there's not really anything you can do, short of going to another brand, until the MoCo identifies the true problem.