Considering a Ruby Compact with Sora

[mamakass]

Hi all ... new to the forum.. hope this is the right place to post this question... I started riding last year on an old steel schwinn my son found on craigs list. It was probably a pretty good guys bike about 20 years ago (ha ha). I did a women's sprint Tri last summer and discovered I really enjoyed riding. I use clipless pedals and ride about 14mph average speed on the trails. I'm not super competitive but like to be able to do my best and enjoy it. I've really only ridden on trails around town (Kansas City) which are great but have their drawbacks (narrow, crowded, bumpy, twisty, etc).
I am looking to up-grade my ride and found my way to a store which sells Specialized. They are showing me the Dolce Elite with Tiagra for $1250 and the Ruby Compact with Sora for $1450. (Specialized has put the Ruby's on sale this month). For a carbon bike, that Ruby price looks pretty good to me... but I am wondering if I should consider something else...a different brand or price point... (this is higher than I thought I would be going).
Would love any advice about what else I should be looking at...or what might be an interim step here before plunking down such a big amount.

I think one of the things I need to figure out is do I stick with a road bike or should I be looking at a different type of bike. So far the only riding I have done would call for a road bike... but if I wanted to do a multi-day ride, for exapmle, could i put paniers on the Ruby?
thanks girls!
Mamakass