Ephesians 4:11-13 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Today we are going to have a short day of 63 Miles to just past Durango Colorado. Our biggest concern this morning is there are two major fires burning out of control. The Burro Mountain fire is 1400 acres and it is about 30 miles from our hotel but the smoke plume looks like it is just over the Mountain. The 416 Fire is about 10 miles north of Durango and it has burned 22,000 acres. Neither fire is anywhere near under control. We are concerned the air quality will affect Doug's cycling. As we left the motel everything was okay but the further we ventured the worse the smoke was. By the time Doug was in Durango the smoke was so heavy visibility was probably less than a half mile.

The trip to Durango was pretty uneventful for me but for Doug there was a long climb before he would get to descend to the town. I did meet him at the top of the hill and I gave him a two-minute head start and tried to catch him and he beat me to town. He is superfast on the downhill runs. I stopped at the UPS store as I stuffed all of my stuff in one box to ship it home. I figured this was better than having to check bags and pay for them at the airport. I am excited about this as I will not have to wrestle luggage at 1 AM when my flight Tuesday arrives in Greensboro. I hurried to try to catch Doug again and we at a RV park on the other side of Durango to finish the days ride. We packed up his bike and headed to Durango to tour the town as today was a short day and he only rode 53 miles and we were going to tour the town.

By the time we had returned to town the smoke had lifted and it was a beautiful afternoon. We rode through some of the neighborhoods to view the architecture. Doug has always to look at the architectural styles everywhere we have been. Whether it is in Chicago, London England or Durango he loves to see the different styles. After our neighborhood tour we went to one of the local restaurants in downtown and had a very pleasant lunch. After lunch we went and toured the train station for the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. We had planned on riding the train but service had been suspended because of the massive fires burning in the national forest. The train station was a historical delight with all of the history covered by all of the exhibits. Afterwards I was forced to take Doug to ColdStone Creamery as I have to make sure Doug is eating enough - he needs six to eight thousand calories a day. (About three times what I am eating). We had a very fulfilling day as we returned to our motel to rest and prepare for tomorrow and my return to normal. God is so good!