To the Forge and Back

Bored with Amamake blobs, I decided to travel a bit last week and set the Forge lowsec as my destination. I chose a Wolf for this journey as it would allow me to take on bigger targets (and of course some Bastards(TM) then caught me cheating on my Rifter).
I was surprised by the number of shuttles, noob ships and industrial ships moving through systems like Ingunn and Gusandall. While they did no interest me as potential targets, it later turned out they were still useful.
My first engagement in the journey wasn't successful: I attacked a Jaguar in a belt in Bogelek but it was soon joined by a Sacrilege and a Zealot and my ship went down. I got a Rifter and a new Wolf hauled to a nearby system and roamed around in a Rifter for a while. I scanned down another Rifter in a plex in Gusandall and warped to it. ManTan LNJ was up for a fight, but my Rifter turned out to be stronger.
I eventually reached Akora where DirgeMon, who was hanging around next to a station in his Kestrel, responded to my lock by opening fire and died quickly.
I then turned back, making a stop in Wiskeber. There was a Ferox class battlecruiser in a belt and a quick background check showed its pilot was unlikely to have neutralisers - the biggest threat to my assault frigate. I warped in and activated my guns keeping a tight orbit. The bigger ship's guns could not hurt me and its destruction was only a matter of time. When the Ferox was about to die, a Stabber cruiser warped in. I was going to tackle it when a Raven also showed up and then my overview was full of ships. I quickly warped out and waited. The blob disappeared soon and I was even able to pick up the loot.
I docked up in Wiskeber to get some sleep and undocked a few hours later to find a Drake on my scanner. I quickly pinned it down to a station, warped in for a check and saw that the battlecruiser was taking sentry fire while killing industrial ships. What could be better? I quickly warped back to the station, tackled the Drake and let my guns spit out EMP rounds. Smith44 sent his drones after me, but I quickly dispatched them with the help of sentry guns. The Drake got popped quickly under heavy fire, leaving some nice loot.
The rest of my journey back was uneventful, save for an encounter with the Bastards' gang that included Hallan Turrek and Flashfresh. I docked up just to be on the safe side and had a good laugh watching Hallan pretend to be a noob. I think he also said they sometimes wear adult diapers while roaming.