Welcome from Illinois ... I'm in Grundy County - about 20 miles south of Joliet.
I was also at the show this past weekend and spent lots of time looking at Long Arms ... after looking at the quilt eye-candy of course!!
As for the high end machines you need to decide which features are must have's for you, and which are icing. There are tons of threads on QB about needed vs wanted features, reviews on various machines etc.
The short summary though ... start by sourcing which dealers are local to you. If you need training/support/service/parts you'll be happier if you can get them within a short drive with dealers you like and trust. Once you have a list of local dealers of different brands, test drive them and figure out which features you NEED, and eliminate machines you are uncomfortable with. Narrow it down between features/dealers/price and as they say "Bob's your uncle".