Pierre Cloutier gave up his Montreal trucking job last year, after deciding that he was spending too much time behind the wheel. Now, he's on the open road again, but this time driving a horse-drawn wagon.
It's a strange sight to see, a wagon plodding along Canada's highways and roads as cars and trucks speed by. But Cloutier says it's just what he needed after grinding away at his last job.
"I was driving too much, so I decided to quit," he told CTV Vancouver during a stop near Kelowna, B.C. "And then my girlfriend broke up with me at the same time."
Rather than wallow in his heartbreak, Cloutier decided to follow one of his childhood dreams: travelling in a wagon from Quebec to the Okanagan Valley. There were skeptics, of course, but he brushed them off.
"Never let anyone tell you your dream is too big, that you can't make it," he said.
He left Quebec last November on what he thought would be a solitary journey of a man and his four horses. But many passersby just couldn't resist chatting with him.
"The first day I harnessed the horse, a guy stopped me and said, 'Did I miss a parade or something?'" Cloutier said.
Others, like Jeff Sarsons, offered food and shelter.
Sarsons said, after speaking with Cloutier, he immediately empathized with his story.
"It's a dream. I love the horses, I love what he's doing," Sarsons said. "He's released himself to do this."
How and when will this all end? Even Cloutier doesn't know. He says, however, that he'll eventually stop and put down roots when it feels right.
"When I have the feeling of 'Wow, this is my home,' or 'Wow, these are the kind of people I want to be around,'" he explains.
Once he does eventually settle down, he'll start working on accomplishing his next dream: starting a country band.
With a report from CTV Vancouver's Kent Molgat
