Man logs 160,000 km visiting P.E.I. for past 60 years

Getting his first glimpse of the red shores of P.E.I. is a moment Charles Rogers has looked forward to each summer for the past six decades.

'Every year I come there, there's something more to enjoy'

Brittany Spencer · CBC · Posted: Aug 26, 2018 2:48 PM EDT | Last Updated: August 26, 2018

Charles Rogers has made the trip to P.E.I. from his home in Massachusetts every year for the past six decades. (Submitted by Charles Rogers)

Crossing the Confederation Bridge is a moment Charles Rogers looks forward to each summer and the first glimpse of P.E.I. is an image that has kept him coming back for the last 60 years.

Rogers said he's made the trip from his home in Framingham, Mass., more than 75 times over the years, driving more than 160,000 kilometres to and from the Island in the process.

Rogers and his wife Jean fishing for their supper in 1990. (Submitted by Charles Rogers)

He said his love for the province started when he and his brother spent a summer working on their uncle's farm in Southport in 1948.

"We had some real adventures," Rogers said. "There was just so much to see and we saw so little of it. We were just so enamoured by it and just wanted to see more."

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After marrying his wife, Jean, who is originally from P.E.I., Rogers decided to make his visits to the Island an annual event. For him, nothing compares to the feeling of driving the final few kilometres.

Rogers says he and his family usually stay in the same small house near the beach in Pinette, P.E.I. He is pictured here with his daughter in the mid-1990s. (Submitted by Charles Rogers)

"The minute I see the red shores of Prince Edward Island my heart starts to race I know I'm entering into a whole new realm, waited almost a year to get there and I have never been disappointed," Rogers said.

"The miles just seem to melt away," he added. "Every year I come there, there's something more to enjoy."

'You're never bored'

Rogers said he likes to spend his visits exploring as much of P.E.I. as he can, and despite covering the Island tip-to-tip several times over, he never fails to find something new to do.

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"You don't get bored because it's always changing," he said.

Rogers says he tries to fish as much as he can while on the Island. He caught an eel while fishing near Montague nearly ten years ago. (Submitted by Charles Rogers)

The family usually stays in the same small house near the beach in Pinette.

Rogers said some of his fondest memories of the Island are from time spent deep sea fishing, watching the horse races at the Charlottetown racetrack and sharing lobster suppers with his wife.

But it's the people that keep him coming back, he said.

Rogers after taking the plunge off the bridge at Basin Head Provincial Park more than a decade ago. (Submitted by Charles Rogers)

"Never have I met such wonderful people, I am just enhanced by them. They're friendly, they'll go out of their way to help you," he said. "They seem to just be, as they say, the salt of the earth."

'Always changing'

In the 60 years Rogers has been visiting the Island, he said he's seen many changes. He remembers the days before the bridge, sitting in his car waiting to board the ferry, anxious with anticipation of another Island adventure.

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Rogers also remembers the first time he came to Charlottetown and A&W was the only fast food restaurant in town.

"Now you look at it and it's a mega city almost — a small mega city," he said.

In the many years he's spent travelling to the Island, Rogers said he had enjoyed watching it grow and become more diverse.

Rogers says he and his wife fill up on chowder and biscuits at every opportunity during their visits. They are pictured here enjoying supper in eastern P.E.I. earlier this summer. (Submitted by Charles Rogers)

"It's become a lure for many other peoples and different cultures to visit and to stay," he said. "They all bring and add to the tapestry of the Island."

Rogers and his wife ended this year's visit last week and he said while it always hurts to leave, he's already looking forward to returning next year.