Marrying Your Passions: The DINK Travel and Adventure Podcast

  This post accompanies Episode 26 of Marrying Your Passions, "Tupelo & Heart of America Marathon Reviews: Elvis, Steep Hills, and 26.2 Miles." Listen to the full conversation for the stories, the laughs, and everything we could not fit into this post. Alicia and Nathan after the Heart of America Marathon way back in 2012! Labor Day weekend has always held a special place in our hearts, and for good reason. Back before we had forty plus marathons behind us, before the podcast, before running a marathon in most of the states was checked off, two Labor Day weekend races quietly became part of our story; the Tupelo Marathon and the Heart of America Marathon . These small marathons turned into two of our favorite early memories, and two races that still hold up today. Tupelo Marathon: The Race We Chose Because of Elvis We will be honest, we did not pick the Tupelo Marathon because of the course. We picked it because Alicia loves Elvis, and Tupelo happens to be where he ...

This post accompanies Episode 25 of the Marrying Your Passions podcast . Listen to the full conversation for the stories behind each purchase, our honest ranking, and the reasoning that ties it all together. Nathan and Alicia at Westgate Historic Williamsburg Resort We know timeshares are a hot button topic. There are two camps out there: the owners who've had one for decades and won't hear a word against it, and everyone else convinced it's a scam. We fall firmly into the first camp. We own three timeshares: Westgate Resorts , Hyatt Vacation Club (originally purchased as Welk Resorts), and Disney Vacation Club . This isn't a sales pitch. We don't have an affiliate deal with any of these companies, and what you do with your own travel budget is entirely up to you. What we want to share here is the practical side, the real numbers, the ownership structures, and how each system actually works, so you can decide for yourself whether timeshare ownership makes sense for...

  San Miguel de Allende, Mexico: Everything You Need to Know About the World's Number One Small City This post accompanies Episode 24 of Marrying Your Passions, "Why San Miguel de Allende is the Ultimate DINK Destination with Dream Pro Homes." Listen to the full conversation for the stories, the laughs, and everything we could not fit into this post. We were sitting in our office in the mid eighties Florida heat, almost eight o'clock at night and still sweating, when Greg Gunter told us it was cool enough on his end that he had long sleeves on and his doors open. No air conditioning needed. That single detail sold us before we had even finished the interview. Overlooking San Miguel de Allende If you have been listening to Marrying Your Passions for a while, you know we talk a lot about DINK life, about not someday, today , and about finding places that let you build a lifestyle around what you love rather than what is convenient. Episode 24 might be the clearest ex...

  Gatlinburg & Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Where to Hike, Eat, & Drink This post is the companion guide to Episode 23 of Marrying Your Passions: The DINK Travel and Adventure Podcast, where we cover Gatlinburg, the Smokies and more! Some destinations you visit once and check off a list. Gatlinburg is not one of those places for us. We have been coming back to this corner of Tennessee for 19 years, starting with our honeymoon and continuing through more return trips than we can accurately count. We have watched this town survive wildfires and rebuild itself. Our pup, Peppermint Patty now also has her own tradition here. After all these years, we still find something new every single time. This is our complete guide to it. Nathan and Alicia stopped on the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail for a selfie in front of the Smokies   Where It Started Our first trip to Gatlinburg was our honeymoon back in 2007. We didn't know then that it would become the place we kept re...