Imagine it’s 1977. You live on Beal Street in Hamilton, not far from Kuser Park.
One day, one of your favorite aunts—a retired WWII Naval airplane mechanic—pulls up with her husband in an RV that’s built on a bus chassis. The vehicle is huge.
“There was a whole house inside,” said Bernadette Class, 56. “I remember how I felt seeing it. It was so magical.”
The Hamilton resident recalled that memory while talking about how she made a decision in 2020 to sell her home and set out for adventures in her own RV which she co-owns with Joe Walker, 67, a legal resident of Florida.
Bernadette and Joe call one another co-pilots. Their story might have you considering a For Sale sign in your own front lawn, while you search for the perfect home for the road.
The story begins in 2011, at a Philadelphia-based behavioral healthcare company which provides services for those who are deaf, or hard-of-hearing. Bernadette had been working there as an HR manager when Joe arrived from Mt. Dora, Florida to start a new job at the company. He had worked with a similar, but much larger organization in Florida, which had closed.
Bernadette mostly grew up in Hamilton. In 1984, she and her classmates became the first graduates of Nottingham high school. Prior to that time, Nottingham had been a middle school.
Joe, a self-described Army brat, attended Peter Muschal school in Bordentown for 1st and 2nd grade. He attended Clara Barton for a short time in 3rd grade before moving to Long Island.
After they met, Bernadette and Joe realized they both liked to travel. They both liked the idea of owning an RV. The two did a lot of research and a lot of thinking.
“We went to the Hershey RV Show three years in a row,” Bernadette said. “You can’t even imagine the options. We picked one we thought we wanted.” But then, a review in Consumer Reports, which panned their pick, sent them out looking again.
“The purchase of an RV,” Bernadette said, “is very intimidating; they are not cheap.”
In 2018, they settled on a Wayfarer from the Tiffin Motorhomes Company, and it became the vacation vehicle.
When the pandemic arrived, Bernadette and Joe were on an RV vacation in Texas with their four dogs. Joe had retired in July of 2019. Bernadette was still working. They were enjoying life on the road.
A month later, in March 2020, Bernadette sold her house to a relative, and the co-pilots made the RV their permanent home.
“If you make one step toward something you love,” Bernadette said, “you can figure it out.”
And figuring it out involved a major downsizing.
“I took so much stuff to the Red, White and Blue store,” she chuckled. The new family-connected home owners allowed her to store heirlooms at her former house.
“The hardest part of the moment,” she said, “was driving away.”
But away she and Joe went. Bernadette worked remotely through the pandemic. But, by February of 2022, while RVing in Florida, she quit her job. She went to a post office and shipped her company laptop back to Philadelphia.
The two joined a website called “Workamper News” which bills itself as the “Original Resource of Jobs for RVers, since 1987.” The site connects RVers—as they call themselves—with employers who need temporary or seasonal workers.
“Last summer,” Bernadette said, “we lived and worked in the Pine Barrens at Wading Pines Camping Resort in Chatsworth.” She worked in the camp store. These arrangements might include a small salary; RVers also usually get free parking and a full hook up to water, electricity and sewer.
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One day, an RV caravan company reached out to the co-pilots. The company needed tour guides for a caravan trip. Think of the covered wagon trains, traveling one-behind-the-other on the Oregon Trail. Only in 2023, the covered wagons are RVs.
The Lead Trek Master drives the first RV in line and has the itinerary. The RV caboose, called the Tail Gunner, brings up the rear and does the clean-up-on-aisle-ten work. Should an RVer have trouble along the route, the Tail Gunner comes to the rescue.
The Tail Gunner position was open. The caravan would head to Alaska for a sixty-day trip, which would run from May 25 to August 15.
Thinking they had a lock on the job since the company had reached out to them, Joe discovered there were actually seventy applicants. And, there was one looming question they kept asking one another: “Do you think this opportunity is real?”
Bernadette was hoping so. “Alaska was on my bucket list,” she said.
The co-pilots knew they had experiences others might not. They were used to working with individuals with disabilities, and people from all walks of life. They were both CPR certified. Although not deaf themselves, the two are fluent in ASL, the language most used by people who are deaf.
“We had to sell ourselves,” Bernadette said. But, they landed the position.
The Thursday before Memorial Day weekend, thirteen RVs lined up to head out for an Alaskan adventure. The Lead Trek Master was Canadian. Over the 60 days, they would cross the Canadian border seven times (the co-pilots were now traveling with two dogs). They captured breathtaking scenes of mountains; bodies of water the color of deep turquoise; and photos, or videos, of bears and moose along the sides of roads. Some of the roads were extremely steep; and, because of freezing and thawing, deeply rutted.
“One day,” Joe said, “we drove 110 miles and saw ten bears and two Buffalo herds. About 40 buffalo total.”
Bernadette said she was “inspired” by her fellow travelers. Among the group, two men ages 81 and 75, and a woman, aged 77, all traveling alone in their individual RVs while towing vehicles.
The caravan faced challenges. The owner of one of the RVs had radiator issues which were addressed. Then, the Tail Gunners found that same RV on the side of the road one day with a Jeep under it, and one of the bay doors popped open. The Jeep hadn’t been hitched correctly. Caravan members rescued the vehicle and closed the bay door. But, the hitch couldn’t be saved, or replaced; so, the couple in that RV had to drive two separate vehicles.
There were two bouts of Covid among the travelers. Bernadette and Joe had to contact the caravan company about Covid protocols. Finding Covid tests in Alaska was difficult; the tests were expensive. Fortunately, at the time, the caravan was in Alaska’s largest city, Anchorage.
The Trek Master was hospitalized with a heart condition, so the co-pilots became the Trek Masters; and the guy who suffered the hitch-loss volunteered to be the Tail Gunner. The Trek Master did return to finish the trip.
Through those trials, Bernadette and Joe said, people rallied to help one another. Those actions reminded them of simpler times when people connected without having to check a phone.
Bernadette and Joe returned to New Jersey during Labor Day weekend. At the moment, the RV is “mooch docking” in Bordentown–an RVer term for parking on someone’s property for a spell.
When asked: What’s next? The two really have no idea. They would love to travel with a caravan again. They are looking at a number of opportunities.
They have used the app Harvest Hosts. It’s an RV Camping Membership site that connects RVers to overnight stays at wineries, breweries and farms. Bernadette noted the establishments allow RVers to stay on their properties for free in return for patronizing their businesses.
They will make a decision eventually. Reflecting on their pace of life with an RV, Joe said, “your philosophy of where you need to get to changes. There are no deadlines.”
The two continually gushed about the trip to Alaska during an interview. “It was the greatest trip I’ve ever had,” Joe said. He fears there might “not be another trip like it.” Bernadette glowed as she talked about ziplining in Alaska’s Denali National Park. The co-pilots embody YOLO: You Only Live Once.
“Life’s too short, Bernadette said. “There are too many people who wait too long. They wait for things to be right. You have to follow your bliss,” she continued. “Even when it’s scary; even when it’s hard.” She added, “We love this life.”
Joe Walker and Bernadette Class with their RV, which they use to travel the country.,
