So this may be the counterpoint to Moonshiner's "I dread the way home" thread, but as Beagle Week progresses I'm honestly getting more and more excited to set out from WP23.....
Now that's not to say I'm in any hurry, I am staying the whole week and I'll probably even be around Beagle awhile afterwards collecting jump mats. Since WP23 is a green system it makes for a fantastic place to stock up. And I'll be needing the mats because I ain't going straight home; no I plan a very roundabout counterclockwise path back to civilization, playing around in the Abyssal Plain and the western edge of the galaxy, so I don't plan on being back to the bubble for at least another couple of months. Possibly sometime like August. Probably more like in the Fall. Maybe in time for WP24 at Mitterland Hollow on December 1st....
But as the week progresses and I'm making my plans on where I'll be heading from here, I have to admit that I'm starting to greatly anticipate setting off on my own again. Don't misunderstand me, I've greatly enjoyed flying on the DWE and truthfully it's been the best few months I've had yet with Elite. I mean this has been all manners of fun and thrills and I profoundly thank everyone who helped make this wonderful voyage happen, BUT, if I had to pick one negative about the DWE it would be flying on a schedule and timetable. That is the nature of group trips though, with a huge organized fleet like this it's a necessity and I understand that, and there was plenty of time between waypoints for me. To be blunt I'm surprised that I was able to completely keep up and make every waypoint on time. Back at the start I was so afraid I'd fall behind the fleet.
You see I'm normally a wanderer. I used to explore by lollygagging around space sightseeing, scanning everything that looks interesting and generally traveling slower than a drunk fully loaded T9 with E rated engines. But I've now realized that the trip home is NOT on a schedule. I'll be setting my own destinations, and I can take as long as I want to get there, or go as fast as I want. And in many ways now I wonder if I set out on the DWE with the tantalizing prospect of the long arduous open ended journey home from across the galaxy as my final reward for doing it. I may lose myself in possibilities here in deep space so very far from humanity, and though some might find that frightening, or they might find the 65,000 ly voyage home daunting, my excitement and anticipation of those very things is growing to dangerously eager levels...
I've learned new things on this trip. Before the DWE I had no notion of the difference between "exploring" and "traveling". It's why until this year I'd never been farther than 12,000 ly's out from Sol, I simply took too much time flying and exploring everything. But now I can cover 2000 ly's per hour if I want to. Before the DWE I'd not really used FSD boosts for anything other than testing, but I now have experience using and managing it to get to hard to reach stars. I have boatloads of experience prospecting planets for jump mats and I'm confident I can do it anywhere in the galaxy if I need to (thanks Rock Rats!). I'm a better explorer now than I ever was thanks to the DWE, and while it may be a Dangerous conceit, I don't really fear flying anywhere anymore. My inhibitions are checked, I'm confident as a Commander, and the voyage home is merely time in the seat and good piloting of The Amity, my Asp.
Yeah, I'm happily looking forward to the final leg of Distant Worlds, the voyage home. I'm also looking forward to hearing about how everyone else's trip home goes too. Maybe we need a thread where we can all post our experiences on the way back to the bubble?
Now that's not to say I'm in any hurry, I am staying the whole week and I'll probably even be around Beagle awhile afterwards collecting jump mats. Since WP23 is a green system it makes for a fantastic place to stock up. And I'll be needing the mats because I ain't going straight home; no I plan a very roundabout counterclockwise path back to civilization, playing around in the Abyssal Plain and the western edge of the galaxy, so I don't plan on being back to the bubble for at least another couple of months. Possibly sometime like August. Probably more like in the Fall. Maybe in time for WP24 at Mitterland Hollow on December 1st....
But as the week progresses and I'm making my plans on where I'll be heading from here, I have to admit that I'm starting to greatly anticipate setting off on my own again. Don't misunderstand me, I've greatly enjoyed flying on the DWE and truthfully it's been the best few months I've had yet with Elite. I mean this has been all manners of fun and thrills and I profoundly thank everyone who helped make this wonderful voyage happen, BUT, if I had to pick one negative about the DWE it would be flying on a schedule and timetable. That is the nature of group trips though, with a huge organized fleet like this it's a necessity and I understand that, and there was plenty of time between waypoints for me. To be blunt I'm surprised that I was able to completely keep up and make every waypoint on time. Back at the start I was so afraid I'd fall behind the fleet.
You see I'm normally a wanderer. I used to explore by lollygagging around space sightseeing, scanning everything that looks interesting and generally traveling slower than a drunk fully loaded T9 with E rated engines. But I've now realized that the trip home is NOT on a schedule. I'll be setting my own destinations, and I can take as long as I want to get there, or go as fast as I want. And in many ways now I wonder if I set out on the DWE with the tantalizing prospect of the long arduous open ended journey home from across the galaxy as my final reward for doing it. I may lose myself in possibilities here in deep space so very far from humanity, and though some might find that frightening, or they might find the 65,000 ly voyage home daunting, my excitement and anticipation of those very things is growing to dangerously eager levels...
I've learned new things on this trip. Before the DWE I had no notion of the difference between "exploring" and "traveling". It's why until this year I'd never been farther than 12,000 ly's out from Sol, I simply took too much time flying and exploring everything. But now I can cover 2000 ly's per hour if I want to. Before the DWE I'd not really used FSD boosts for anything other than testing, but I now have experience using and managing it to get to hard to reach stars. I have boatloads of experience prospecting planets for jump mats and I'm confident I can do it anywhere in the galaxy if I need to (thanks Rock Rats!). I'm a better explorer now than I ever was thanks to the DWE, and while it may be a Dangerous conceit, I don't really fear flying anywhere anymore. My inhibitions are checked, I'm confident as a Commander, and the voyage home is merely time in the seat and good piloting of The Amity, my Asp.
Yeah, I'm happily looking forward to the final leg of Distant Worlds, the voyage home. I'm also looking forward to hearing about how everyone else's trip home goes too. Maybe we need a thread where we can all post our experiences on the way back to the bubble?
