At the end of the previous millennium, noted journalist Mark Jacobson and his wife, Nancy, decided they couldn"t take another moment of watching their three children get any stupider. They decided that Rae (sixteen), Rosalie (twelve), and Billy (nine) had become prisoners of the idiot culture, which seemed a terrible waste of perfectly fine DNA. There was only one recourse: to declare war. To get away, far away. To go around the world. 12,000 Miles in the Nick of Time is the story of this three-month trip, a trek through Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, India, Jordan, Israel, France, and England. The itinerary was planned around places that have stood the test of time -- the Angkor Wat, Durbar Square in Kathmandu, the ancient Hindu city of Varanasi, Petra in Jordan, the Pyramids at Giza, the Holy City of Jerusalem. The concept: to contrast these immortal works of man with the crap on TV. But it is also a wider journey, stretching across generations, an expedition into the minds of five family members as they make their way through a succession of cramped cars, seventeen-hour train rides, seemingly endless walks through teeming metropolises -- and one more bowl of curry.