I Met the Great Great Great . . . Grandson of a French Fur Trapper and a Native American Woman: Bart Coleman, and His Wife, Tracy Coleman

I met the great great great . . . grandson of a French fur trapper and a native American woman, Bart Coleman from St. Louis, at the Super-8 in Fairfield. Jim and I were having breakfast, and the French and native American in him, especially the French, just jumped out at me. 

I asked him if he was French, and sure enough. I wish I'd thought to ask him what his French family surname was, but I was so struck with his looks I didn't think to.

Jim and I were joking with Bart's team about the people in room 111, the room next to ours in Perry, who were smoking weed. Bart said that they must have followed us to this Super-8 because they smelled weed in the hallway at the Super-8 in Fairfield, which is where we were all staying.

He and his team were also joking over breakfast about how game his wife was about partying late at night on his birthday. It sounded to me like she doesn't like staying up late, but she found her second wind out of love for her husband and managed to get in the right party mood.

After eating a waffle slathered with peanut butter and bananas, Bart rustled up breakfast in bed for his wife. He'd forgotten a fork, came back, and I reminded him to bring napkins, too. He thanked me.

We waited, and eventually the wife who rides her bike on RAGBRAI and parties hardy on her husband's birthday emerged from her chambers. I got two photos of her and her husband, but doggone it, the light in back of them was so bright the photos of the two of them didn't turn out too well. I'll post the photo of Bart that did turn out and one of both of them that didn't (the better of the two).

I think this is one Frenchman on RAGBRAI I managed not to offend.

This is RAGBRAI, not le tour de France, though Lance Armstrong has done both and won the tour de France seven times, and parts of RAGBRAI, one while eating a verboten coconut cream pie (no cream pies on RAGBRAI, officially, but Lance scored one once), and one while eating humble pie, which I'm sure he did gracefully.