I am getting interested in the adventure bikes and I wanted to learn a little more about them.
Have you considered either the Triumph Tiger 800 or if you want the 1200 motor, the Triumph Explorer?
I'm with you, sold my street bike a couple years ago as it was collecting dust in the garage (too much fun in the dirt), but fully plan to get back into street riding when my boys are a little older and I can put them on the back for rides.
KTM and BMW pretty much own the adventure market, but don't discount the Triumph. I doubt I'll go to the 1200 as it's too big for my tastes, but the 800 is an incredibly capable bike. You also get the choice of the standard or XC being more dirt oriented.
My buddy, who made this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTvYAcJOx3s, has a Tiger 800 and loves it. You'll see the guys in that video put the 800s through some pretty crazy stuff too - so they're capable (though I'd never do that with a bike I owned...lol).
Anyway, let us know what you end up going with...if you do. It's strange, almost all of the guys I've been riding street/track with for the last ~10 years have switched gears to dirt and sold their street beasts (we all still have dedicated track bikes though

). My guess is the pendulum will swing back toward the middle and we'll all have adventure bikes in the next ~5 years...probably as we all approach that 50 mark...lol.