(That's a stupid title but I couldn't come up with anything better.)

After one aborted trip and a whole lot of "I really should make it there one of these days", I've finally made it to the biggest tourist spot in the galaxy - Sagittarius A. There's not much I can say about it that hasn't been said many times already: it's huge. Sometimes when you're traveling alone from one system to another it can be hard to get a sense of scale when it's just stars and planets out there but that's not a problem when you jump out in front of Sag A herself. When you can see a black hole from a neighboring system (Armstrong's Landing, which I stopped at on the way) over a light year away, you know you've found something special. After flying around her to take some pretty snapshots I made my requisite stop at the tourist beacon and went on my merry way. I must say though that after all the solitary flying to get here I'll never get used to bumping into the usual handful of tourist liners flying around every beacon regardless of distance from home. I suppose it is a minor comfort to be reminded that there are other humans out here with me, even if they are a bunch of rich idiots getting loaded in luxury.

I do have to mention my stop at the Great Annihilator on the way, even if she wasn't as significant. I've been fascinated by this system since getting in my first ship and pored over the Galaxy Map looking for places to go. I'm somewhat ashamed to say that for a while I was under the mistaken impression that the G.A. was the center of the galaxy, not Sagittarius A as we all know. You have to admit though that when it comes to impressive names, you can't beat "The Great Annihilator". I was suitably impressed when I jumped into the system as well; my exit from hyperspace left me close enough to the black hole that I was completely enveloped by her gravitational distortion. I had to rely on my scanner to point my ship in the opposite direction to get enough distance so I wouldn't have to worry about getting knocked out of supercruise. In some ways I was more impressed than I was at Sag A - maybe due to it being so unexpected.

Anyway, I made the short jump over to Explorer's Anchorage where I docked, sold off my exploration data, made a few small repairs and decided to stay for the "night". She's an impressive station, especially considering she didn't exist a couple of months ago. I did have one cosmetic change to make to my beloved Asp, however: I was able to finally update the Explorer insignias to "Elite". Yep, this last batch of data finally pushed me past the line and I now have double Elite status (the other is in Trading). I'm not shy about admitting that that felt damned good. After exploring on and off for over two years it's nice to finally be recognized for it. Of course, this means that when I make it back to the bubble I'll have some serious work to do on my combat skills so I can make the revered "Triple Elite" status. Then I'll really have something to crow about.

As much as I'd love to, there's no time to relax and celebrate. Tomorrow I'll be leaving this last jewel of civilization and heading off towards Beagle Point. I have less than a month to make it across half the galaxy and I'm damned well going to make it.

After being laid up at the (admittedly bare bones) medical facility at the Polo Harbour planetary outpost since the middle of February, I've finally been able to resume Distant Worlds 2. It took the better part of a week to make it to Waypoint 6, also known as the Dryau Awesomes - not bad for almost 7000 lightyears when you consider I've been getting a full scan of every system I've discovered. Still, it's been a little rough, especially with the occasional malfunction in my LRSS. I was able to discover and map a few water worlds and Earthlike planets anyway, as well as finding my first biological entity on a dirty little metal world. Sure, it wasn't much more than a patch of space gourds with glowy bits but it's still pretty special to find life out here in the middle of nowhere.

I still remain hopeful I'll be able to reach Beagle Point by the expedition's deadline of June 13th. Now that I'll be following the expedition route a little more closely I imagine I'll run into fewer unmapped systems, making it that much quicker to go from system to system. Sure, I may not have an overengineered Anaconda made of tissue paper and boosters but my always faithful Asp and it's almost 57 lightyear jump range will get me there just fine. Worse comes to worse, I can always send a message to the expedition's coordinator and plead my case for an extension so I can still get on the register as having completed the thing. I may have missed the camaraderie and the cooperative aspects of the trip but at least I'll still be in the books as making the trip, not to mention the nifty decal I'll be able to pick up at an outfitter for my Asp. Yeah, I'm that guy.

Once I leave this ridiculous system (as pretty as it is) my next goal will be the Great Annihilator itself, a system I've been looking forward to seeing for a long time now. Then it'll either be Sagittarius A*, Armstrong Landing or Explorers Anchorage, whichever is closest. I'm really looking forward to the latter though, being the last bit of civilization I expect to see for quite a long time. Hopefully I'll be able to touch up my hull (and paint job, of course), sell off what exploration data I've had and continue pushing on to Beagle Point and mark this expedition as completed. Once that's done I plan on relaxing for a bit before I continue on my own journey, one that was so tragically interrupted a little over three years ago. But that story is for another log entry as this thing's gotten way too long as it is.