Big & tall newbie cruisers?

Hey MF. First off, I apologize for starting another newbie thread on here, what with there already being a lot here. I've just done so much reading and so much research, I figured I'd just break down and ASK somebody, and this board looks like it's got some pretty competent people on board.

I'm not licensed yet - in fact, I'm just trying to amass enough knowledge that when I do hit the MSF course, I'll get through it more easily and later have enough knowledge to make an intelligent first bike purchase. But everywhere I look, I see different answers. So let's see what happens here.

Okay, I'm 6'4" and about 270lbs. I don't care much for sport bikes and feel no inspiration from standards; I instead greatly prefer the look and road manners of a cruiser. I have friends that require highway travel to visit, so I'll want something that can keep up with the 65+ mph traffic between Atlanta and Lawrenceville.

I was thinking maybe a Kawasaki Vulcan 500 or a Yamaha V-Star 600. But I've seen so many bikes and heard other guys my size and bigger talk about the importance of a high saddle and forward controls. I really don't want to have to go the dual-sport route if I can help it, but I suppose it wouldn't make for a bad first bike. I don't know for sure.

So what's your take on this? Is a cruiser in the 500-650 range suitable, or should I aim higher or lower? Keep in mind how green I am, here. I also don't have gobs of money to blow on a first bike unless there's some significant advantage to a particularly expensive model.

I appreciate you reading all this.