First of all, love your forum name, which describes two of my favorite activities. Are you on Ravelry? There's a lot of discussion on the Casual Bicyclists group about this very topic. (lots of women of a like age....)
I had the same issues, and my chiropractor suggested a crank forward. I'd had a hybrid that was fitted pretty well, but still had back/hand issues. I bought an Electra Townie 21D, which suits me very well for the time being. I was warned that it was only good for rides of 10-15 miles, but have ridden 25-30 miles comfortably, and I am not in great shape. It is heavy, but the gears are enough that I can deal with mild/moderate hills. I've replaced the seat.
DH rides a Specialized road bike several times weekly, but he bought a Townie 21D also so we could ride together on rougher paths/roads/whatever. He likes both of them, and finds he uses different muscles. When he wants to get his miles in, fast, he takes the road bike out. When we ride just for fun or on trips, we take the Townies. I ride mine about 5 days a week (good weather). We've had them less than a year, and I've logged over 1000 miles. I paid about $440 at a local bike shop, but friends have bought them for less. Best investment I've made in years.
We take the bikes frequently on short trips in our minivan. We've removed the back seat of the van (which we don't use anyway) and DH uses a 2x4 with fork clamps (?not sure what they're called) screwed into it. We take the front tires off and the bikes just fit. We can stay in hotels and leave the bikes locked in the van in the parking garage until we're ready for a ride.
We do catch some flak about not riding "real bikes," mostly from DH's carbon fiber/lycra friends. But we have a really good time, and my back doesn't hurt when I get off the bike.
(there's an old infamous thread on the bikeforums site called "Avoid Electra Townie." It's pretty funny. I didn't find a lot of helpful advice on that site about crank forward bikes in general, but then I got tired of looking and just went and tested some bikes.)
Good luck -- you'll find a bike you like.