MS The World is a residential cruise ship. Unlike other cruise ships, which operate like a resort, it is operated like a condominium complex, with large cabins that can be purchased. The residents, from about 19 countries, live on board as the ship travels. Some residents choose to live on board full-time while others visit periodically throughout the year. The ship is operated by ROW Management, Ltd., headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States.

Mr. Thompson left New York for Chicago on October 14th, 1891, and returned to that city on May 18th in the following year. This handsome volume records by pen and pencil what he saw and thought of lands, seas, men, and cities during that time. He began by going across the Continent to Victoria, British Columbia ; went thence to Vancouver, and from Vancouver sailed to Japan. Japan seems to have exercised on him its customary fascination. China did not please him as much. (Why, we may ask, the very hideous picture of "After the Execution" ?).

Until recently little information was available on Gray. It is now known, however, that he was born in the farm hamlet of East Springfield, New York, located about 50 miles west of Albany on the Western Turnpike. Members of the Gray family were prosperous farmers who had been in the Cooperstown region since shortly after the Revolution.

We are Mary Thompson and Peter Root. At 5.00pm on the 12th July 2011 we got the boat to France with loads of stuff and two bikes. We’ve created this website to document our adventures along the way.

I sat down one day and jotted down some thoughts on why exactly I want to do this. Usually I wouldn’t feel a need to justify myself, but, I mean come on, around the world by recumbent bicycle and skateboard?