10.

Your zen practice for the trip is to accept the chaos of the messy vehicle. If you try to ‘organize’ that lucky rabbit foot you’ve had since grade 10 will get lost. If you try to ‘clean,’ garbage will end up in the bag of groceries you just bought.

9.

People will promise to send you their photos, movies, and tweet or FB about the band, but they don’t. They meant it when they said it, just, you know, time happens.

8.

The books you bring are as excited as you are about the journey! At last, eyes will peruse their worthy pages. But alas, they will lie forgotten on the floor next to the take-out food wrappers and assorted bags. Forlorn, the books will disappear into the black hole under the seat, never to be seen again.

7.

No matter how long you travel, you will only wear three outfits. But you never know what those outfits are until you’re on the road. You will cease to care which clothes are clean and which are dirty.

6.

When you get lost all five of you ask different people for directions at the next gas station. You’ll receive five contradictory suggestions and one of the guys will follow you through town because he thought it was “too sexy” that you’re an all girl band.

5.

Strangers will love you. Like the rich guy who took us all out to dinner one night. It was totally weird. It was a posh place and through dinner he turned from one of us to the next and asked about who we were, where from, family etc. Then he bought ten CDs. Guess we’d sparked some hidden hopes and dreams in him.

4.

The juice on your laptop or phone will run out just when you arrive at reliable wifi. All the electrical outlets will be stuffed with the octupi of other powerless doodads. You’ll drink too much coffee waiting and start thinking, talking and moving in double-time. You’ll drive too fast and get a speeding ticket, arrive at the next bar two hours early, then go into caffeine crash just as it’s time to get on stage.

3.

You will write a song using the Subway Sandwich menu for lyrics. Other bands will admit to writing similar songs. You’ll get together and put out a CD, Subway will pay you oodles of bucks. You will live off their sandwiches for the rest of your life. (This is the kind of fiction that comes from too many hours in the car. Trouble is, we think it’s laugh-out-loud hysterical at the time. So sad.)

2.

The only thing you’ll miss from home is the privacy of your bathroom and your pet. After a few days you’ll forget about them.

1.

As a traveler, you start to realize that the world is a lot less dismal than you had previously thought. That days full of schedules, habits and to-do lists are not what life is all about. As you explore new places, finding little restaurants, nifty stores and vistas that make you sigh, your perception will change and that’s all that’s needed to change everything. You’ll remember who you really are and who you really want to be.

The Forty Watt Flowers is a fictional band from Athens, GA.

Watch their video on YouTube.

As they travel on their How Novel tour, 2014, they will from time to time philosophize on being a band, the purpose of music, and hopefully discover who really eats those hots dogs sold at 7-11s. This tour is a sequel to their first appearance in the novel called… well, The Forty Watt Flowers.