Vance, there are lots of ways to get lots of miles with and without flying. With the DL AMEX gold card, for example, you can get 20,000 bonus miles (not base miles, which are known as MQMs on DL - but bonus miles) if you get a card now and ask for an extra one for your fiancee. Plus there's no annual fee for the first year and you get double bonus miles on everyday purchases at grocery and drug stores, gas stations, etc. Frequently, there are also other double miles bonus promotions and you get double miles when you buy DL tickets. If you are going to be spending $25K a year on expenses that you can charge to an AMEX card, the DL Platinum AMEX will get you 10K MQMs (counts toward the 25K needed to get Silver Medallion status) per year. Thus you'd only need to actually get 15K additional MQMs through flying in order to get to Silver Medallion. There's usually a sign up bonus and fee reduction/elimination for the Platinum card as well but I don't see one right now. Check the American Express web site under personal cards - benefits for all the details on the various cards, including the Optima that Efram suggested. Lots of choices depending on your spending patterns, etc.

Efrem's excellent suggestion about charging everything to the AMEX card (as long as you can pay the bill in full each month) is a good thing to keep in mind. Also, there is a new card out called the AMEX points (rather than miles) card for DL but you'll need to do a search on that to get the details. Some like it and some don't but you can make your own decision from discussions on other forums. (Shouldn't it be "fori", Efrem? )

I agree that DL would be a good choice given your location and flying habits. While some FTers feel that award availability on DL is getting less and less, that is not my experience. With all the Skyteam airlines, my wife and I have always had good luck getting award travel wherever we want to go as long as we have a little flexibility. Of course, that's not a concern for you initially but will become important as you accrue miles. We go to Europe every year on award travel in Business Elite on DL or First Class on Air France and not having to pay for those tickets is a major factor in staying with DL. Check frequently in the Delta forum on FT, the Mileage Run forum, the DL web site specials and perhaps a web site like smartertravel.com to get the latest frequent flyer deals and insider tips related to DL and other airlines. Don't forget that flying the SKyteam airlines when DL's flights don't fit your itinerary can still earn you the DL miles. Just be careful that the fare class you choose on other Skyteam airlines gets you full DL miles. (e.g. the lowest classes of fares on CO will only get you .5 DL MQMs for every actual mile flown)

There's lots more to consider and I'm sure many others will offer suggestions. That's something you'll never lack on FT! I'll offer help whenever I can. Good luck.