Road Warriors: April Whitney
TEXT OF STORY
Kai Ryssdal:The standard American work week is a mostly manageable 40 hours. Every now and then, though, you’ve got to put in more time. Whether it’s straight up working extra hours, or traveling for a meeting or a conference or to see a client. When you’re away from home for work, sometimes you need a little extra something to get you going. That’s the idea behind our series “Road Warriors” from producer Michael Rapheal — what people listen to when they’re on the road and on the job.
Today, work travel that doesn’t sound all that bad.
April Whitney: I’m April Whitney. I’m the editor of Scoot! Magazine, and part of my job is traveling around the country to different scooter rallies and events. And the one song that I bring with me, wherever I go, is “25 Miles” by Edwin Starr.
“25 Miles” by Edwin Starr
It’s funny that I would pick a song that’s about walking, when I’m thinking about riding my scooter. But it’s really about a journey.
Edwin Starr, singing: Twenty-five miles from home, girl. My feet are hurtin’ mighty bad…
He counts down the miles, so he says, “I’ve got 10 more miles to go” and it’s this call-and-response between him and the background singers. And I think about when I’m traveling to scooter rallies, I’ve got my truck loaded up with a scooter and magazines and all this stuff, and we’re driving. You know, I’ve driven to Denver, I’ve driven to Mexico. So a lot of times you’re looking at the signs, and whenever I see the sign that’s 25 miles to my destination, I always think of this song, I want to put it on.
Starr: I’m so tired, but I just can’t lose my stride. I’ve got 15 miles to go now, and I can hear my baby calling my name…
When you’re anticipating getting to where you want to go — and it’s going to be fun, it’s going to be great — you count those miles down. And I think that’s the similarity of this: I’m either going to a scooter rally or sometimes I’m on a ride, like a three-hour ride with a bunch of people, hundreds of other scooters. And it’s the journey and getting there and the anticipation of where you’re going to be when you finish.
Starr: I gotta keep on walkin’, hey! I need to walk on. I’m so tired!
Something about making a business out of your hobby is that sometimes you can get really bogged down with the boring minutiae, like I’m concerned with advertising rates going down, am I going to have enough money to print the next issue, how’s my distribution doing, how are my subscriptions doing, what’s resonating, right? There’s all these business things that bug me day-in and day-out.
Sometimes I have to put that aside, and not think about that stuff and really think about the core mission of what I’m doing, which is to share my enthusiasm from this hobby of mine with other people. So when I go to a rally, I’m loaded up with stuff to sell, and I’ve gotta make sure I have my shirt and jacket that has the “Scoot!” logo on it and stuff. But sometimes, I really need something to push the business-y part out of my brain and just enjoy some of the fun.
Ryssdal: We’ve got a whole new music section on our website, y’know. That’s where you’ll find a list of April’s other favorites is and you can offer up your own.
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