"""Leaving with less than five dollars in his pocket, and using the alias  """"Alberta Outlaw,"""" he left his home in Smoky River, Alta., to raise awareness for mental health issues. On Friday afternoon, he arrived at the Ritz Motor Inn in Whitecourt, tied up his horse and went inside for a bite to eat and a hot drink. """"I'm riding for mental illness,"""" he said. """"It's an epidemic across the land and no one wants to talk about it. I'm trying to lift that stigma so people will talk and maybe we can save some lives."""" Suffering himself from mental illness, the 60-year-old man speaks from personal experience. """"I suffer with it really bad, but I've survived,"""" he said. """"The more funding I get, the further I'll ride. I suffer from depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder."""" Riding on his horse named Drifter, he set out with the hopes of reaching Nashville, Tenn. """"Today was the first day I got a room and had a really nice sleep,"""" he said. """"I was born and raised county, I'm exactly what you see."""" During the interview, a lady came up and told him that she left some hay for his horse and gave him a bag of gloves and hats. """"I talked to a lady here who suffered from depression,"""" he said. """"It's costing our government billions of dollars in one way or another and thousands of people are taking their own lives because of the pain and suffering.""""  Christopher King 
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