Hi! My name is Robert Schmittou, but you can call me Bobby. Everyone else does. I moved to Montana last year, October 2018, from my home town of Nashville, Tennessee. My brother, Doug, and I had always loved the mountains, and when I say mountains, it is the Rocky Mountains not the Smoky Mountains that I am talking about. One consideration, however, was our mother. She lived to the ripe old age of 94, but for the last decade of her life she had Alzheimer’s. Moving mom to Montana was not an option, and there was no way we were going to leave her behind. Rosalie Schmittou, our mother, passed beyond this plain of existence in April of 2016, moving upward, and I dare say Heaven is a better place with her even while Earth has lost one of its truly most kind-hearted and magnanimous ladies that ever set foot upon this, the third planet in our solar system. So, last year we finally made the decision to sell our house and move to what I have always referred to as “God’s Country” because, to me, the Rocky Mountains are some of his greatest creations. Some of my friends like to go to Florida, and its beaches, on vacation. But to me, once you’ve seen the ocean, it’s the same everywhere. Out here in the Rocky Mountains, however, every corner you go around, or every rise over a new horizon, is just that. It’s a new view, and it may be the first time you have seen that new look, from a different angle, of a certain mountain, perhaps Mt. Gould, in Glacier National Park, or what about the magnificent views of the Lower Falls in Yellowstone National Park. There are half a dozen different vantage points of these falls in what is referred to as “the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.” Or, as in my case, it could be the fifth or sixth time that you have seen the Teton mountain range from the Snake River overlook inside Grand Teton National Park. I have a great photograph, that I took, blown up to a 20″ x 30″ poster, framed, and now hanging on the wall in my dining area.
We decided, when we moved to Billings, Montana, to become free-lance writers. Doug used his expertise and did a lot of research in the field of health and wellness as a result of our mother’s illness, and he decided to work on that line. As for myself, I have always had a love of history and that goes hand-in-hand with my love of nature photography. Out here, there is so much of both that they should keep me busy for a long time. My dear sweet cousins Cindy and Kathy asked me to start a blog so that I could share my photographs with them back home. Every journey I take, I post a few photos on my Facebook page, but I am limited about what and how much I can post. Thus, it was time to take the next step, and that is a Blog. I’ve done a lot of research and finally decided that I could build one so that I could, not only share my photos as well as my articles, with my family and friends, but also showcase my business aspect as well. I must say, I could not have done this without the help of a guy named Scott Chow. Anyone that wants to start a blog would be highly advised to go to www.theblogstarter.com which is a tutorial by Mr. Chow on how to start and run your own blog.
Well, that’s all I’ve got for now. This is still a work in progress for me, so I am not exactly sure what the finished product will be until it’s set up. I do, however, know what my first blog article will be. In January of 2008, I took a long weekend and traveled to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The reason was that I wanted to visit the Grand Tetons National Park during the winter where everything was covered with snow. The Good Lord truly blessed me on that journey (and I will get into that when I write the blog), but little did I know at that time; I would not get to see my FAVORITE place in the entire world, again for over 10 years. I visited Grand Teton National Park, this past summer, which is an hour south of Yellowstone National Park, on a round (loop) trip that took me through Idaho, and the back side of the Tetons, up through Grand Teton National Park and onward to Yellowstone National Park before finally coming out through the Beartooth Mountains, which are in the northeastern corner of Yellowstone, on the aptly named Beartooth Highway, that reaches a height just shy of 11,000 (10,947) feet, before heading back home to Billings. At this time, I am not sure what else I will add to my blog, but cooking and some of my recipes will definitely be in it. Thank you for reading this, and I hope you will find knowledge and enjoyment from my future blogs.
