North American Trainz

My story:
East Oregonian Newpaper 2005 Not many people get to start over at 50, but Kent Carter has. Carter was born on a cattle ranch in Eastern Oregon in the spring of 1954. The circumstances of his parent’s union offered a premonition of the tumultuous times ahead for their son. His father, Ted Carter, came from cattle people. His mother, Verna Ward, came from sheep people. They married while the “range wars” over the use of land for cattle or sheep were raging, and both their families opposed the marriage. His country upbringing included working on the ranch and attending the Grant County Fair and the Pendleton Round-Up. His parents separated when he was 11, and his independent streak intensified. He points to his lineage for an excuse for his wanderlust. He claims to be part Nez Perce, Irish, Cherokee, and Scottish, topped off with Aries (Berbec in Romanian). He went to college in Eugene but didn’t last long. “I wasted it all on parties and feeling bad about what I did with my father’s college fund,” he says. He joined the Navy with an eye on the G.I. Bill, allowing him to travel widely. “The closest I came to Eastern Europe was in Greece,” he recalls. The region was mired in the Cold War at the time. After serving in the Navy, he married but eventually joined the Army when he couldn’t find a job. All told, he spent 17 years in the military. He lived in Montana, then Wyoming, and obtained two associates degrees. When his father died in 1990, he moved back to the ranch where he grew up near Long Creek — a logging and ranching town of 230 an hour south of Ukiah. It became increasingly difficult to make the ranch profitable, so he worked as watermaster and maintenance supervisor for Long Creek for more than four years, but that segment of his life ended in disaster and recriminations. He was suspended from his job in the spring of 2001. About two weeks later, his rural Long Creek home burned to the ground in an unexplained fire the volunteer fire department didn’t respond to until it was much too late to help. The next day, he was fired by the City Council. The city offered no public explanation at the time, and Carter declines to talk about it other than to attribute the episode to “small-town politics.” But he acknowledges it was the beginning of the end of his life as he knew it. Getting back on his feet after losing his home and job proved nearly impossible. He says he was unable to cut through the red tape to gain approval to rebuild his home. He lived in a small trailer on the site without electricity, running a computer with a gas generator. His relationship of eight years gradually crumbled under the strain, compounded by legal problems from driving violations. “Also, every time I went out the door, I had to look at this site (of the fire) and this kept all the pain of my loses very prominent in my mind,” he admits The computer ended up being his ticket out. As he worked to establish some on-line businesses, he began chatting with people from around the world, particularly in Russia and Romania. With his life in the United States floundering, Carter made the bold decision to visit Romania and a women he’d met there through the Internet. He contracted with a man to provide hunting rights on his land, leased some land not used for pasture and agreed to sell his cattle to raise money to head to Romania to meet the woman “I had communicated with for several months by Internet, letters and telephone.” Once again, life threw him for a loop. The woman had a boyfriend and “had lied to me about many things; but she did help me get established here.” He’s still struggling to find his niche in Bucharest, after working several short-term jobs and suffering the failure of a food store venture when his associate left town. “To this date, I have lived in seven different locations within Bucharest and know very well how to get around the center of the city,” he says, noting with a laugh that people often ask him for directions. He’s had to sell his ranch near Long Creek, but life is looking up in Romania. He used the money to register his business, American Connections, which he bills as “connecting the world to modern Romania.” He offers to help outsiders with real estate, communications, advertising, touring, investment or development in the country of 23 million (reached at americanconnectionsromania.com). He’s finally secured a permanent visa and hopes to eventually return to northeast Oregon to visit his mother and reclaim his 1958 Harley Davidson motorcycle, “one of the few things I saved from the fire that I really value.” He’s also met “a wonderful woman ... We have now been together for over a year, and I hope to marry and make a family with her.” The language continues to be a challenge, and Carter still misses the land where he grew up. But he has no regrets starting over in Romania. Many people from his old life and his new one have asked why he made such a drastic change. “The only answer I can give anyone is that I came here to go beyond the pain in my heart from my loses from the past, start a new life, and to be free.” ——— Hal McCune is a senior reporter and columnist with the East Oregonian.