In the fall of 1883 Professor William Waterbury Sherman, weary of 40 years of teaching arithmetic, sets forth from San Francisco on a balloon expedition. What happens in the treee weeks between that day and the day he is rescued from the Atlantic Ocean makes up this unbleievable tale.

"Enter the hilarious world of ten-year-old Kenny and his family, the Weird Watsons of Flint, Michigan. There's Momma, Dad, little sister Joetta, Kenny, and Bryon, who's thirteen and an "official juvenile delinquent." When Momma and Dad decide it's time for a visit to Grandma, Dad comes home with the amazing Ultra-Glide, and the Watsons set out on a trip like no other. They're heading south. They're going to Birmingham, Alabama, toward one of the darkest...