The stories behind Colorado - High-Altitude Care

• High-Altitude Care: Twelve Miles Past the Gate — “High-Altitude Care” follows a technician driving through a mountain pass to reach a Colorado clinic after its generator gives out.

Lyrics

Colorado morning,

frost along the pass

A service case beside me, tires crunching glass

The clinic sits beyond the pines, twelve miles past the gate

A warning light is waiting there and daylight can't be laid

Thin air in my lungs, red dust on my hands

Every turn is higher than the last mile plan.

I carry the current through the cold and storm.

Till the quiet room can call its people home.

When the morning wakes and the old lights shine.

That remote little clinic gets another lifeline.

Colorado, hold the road beneath my wheels.

There's a mountain of work, but the promise is real

The nurse waves from the doorway, her coat pulled to her chin

The generator stutters once, then gives us nothing in I open

up the cabinet, trace the fault by feel

A burned out board, a loose old lead, a part I know to heal

No signal on the ridge, no shortcut through the snow

Just a meter, steady hands and one more chance to go

I'll carry the current through the cold and storm

To the quiet room, can call its people home

When the modern wakes and the old lights shine

That remote little clinic gets another lifeline

Colorado, hold the road beneath my wheels

There's a mountain to work, but the promise is real

Outside the high sky opens blue beyond belief

Inside a child is breathing underneath a beeping relief

The numbers settle gently, the room begins to hum

Sometimes hope is something fixed before the night has come

I carried the current through the cold and stone

Now the quiet room is calling people home

Every monitor wakes, every old light shines

That remote little clinic has another lifeline

Colorado wide sky, keep your granite guard

The climb was steep, but the work was worth the hard

Down the pass at evening, snow on every side

The clinic keeps its promise,

and I let the engine ride