Day 01 / 02

Monday, June 15, 2026

San Diego → Airstream of San Diego (San Marcos)

An overnight V4 charge on cheap rates, then the morning drop-off

  • 49.1 miles
  • ~45 min north after the overnight charge drive hours
  • San Diego Rio V4 Supercharger first charge
  • San Diego Rio V4 Supercharger (overnight charge) tonight

Weather: Mild coastal San Diego, easy towing weather

The polished 23-foot Airstream parked nose-out in front of the Airstream of San Diego service building in San Marcos under a clear blue sky, tongue jack down on the pavement
Day 01 Dropped and leveled at Airstream of San Diego in San Marcos, 6,244 miles of towing behind it.

The day, by the numbers

  1. Miles driven49.1mi
  2. Cost per mile69.2¢ / mi charging
  3. Towing efficiency1.02mi / kWh49.1 mi · 48 kWh
  4. Energy48kWh used · 100 kWh charged across 1 session
Photographs

Day 01 in pictures

Stops, in order

The day

  1. start

    Home, San Diego, depart

    Hitch up the Airstream one more time and roll out. After 6,244 miles, this short run is the unglamorous part, getting the trailer the care it earned.

  2. charge

    San Diego Rio V4 Supercharger

    A huge 40-stall V4 Supercharger with lots of pull-through stalls, so the Airstream never has to come off the hitch. We could not charge at home with the camper on the hitch, the home charger is impossible to reach in tow, so we staged here overnight and pulled 99.9 kWh at $0.34/kWh off-peak ($33.97) instead of paying peak in the morning.

  3. finish

    Airstream of San Diego, San Marcos

    Towed up in the morning and dropped the camper at 251 Travelers Way for the post-trip list, the broken sink clip, the rivets we already set, the A/C error code, a floor fastener working up near the bedroom, and the passenger-side wheel well. Pulled in at 8:27 AM reading Trip A 6,293.9, then a truck-only run home.

The silver Airstream beside the Airstream of San Diego building, the AIRSTREAM 423 lettering and a Parts and Service awning above the bay doors
Day 01 Parts and Service. The unglamorous half of towing life, and where the list gets made right.
San Diego Home DAY 01
Charging plan

Where the electrons come from

  • Tesla Supercharger (V4)

    San Diego Rio V4 Supercharger

    A 40-stall V4 site on Rio San Diego Drive in Mission Valley, up to 325 kW and trailer-friendly. We parked here for the night to charge on cheap off-peak rates with the Airstream still hitched, then roll north in the morning.

The Airstream has a service list, so it goes to the dealer. But there is no reason to pay peak charging rates to get it there.

So the run starts the night before: we brought the rig to the San Diego Rio V4 Supercharger on Rio San Diego Drive, a 40-stall site that pushes up to 325 kW and, better yet, has plenty of pull-through stalls. With the Airstream still on the hitch, we slid into a pull-through, plugged in, and let it charge overnight on cheap off-peak rates. Pull-throughs were the quiet hero of the whole 6,000-mile loop, and they make a one-night charge-and-stage trivial.

In the morning it was a short tow, about 34 miles up I-15 from the Rio stop to Airstream of San Diego in San Marcos, the loaded leg pulling close to 1 mi/kWh as the road climbed to 558 feet. We pulled in at 8:27 AM reading Trip A 6,293.9, dropped the camper, and walked the list with the shop: the broken sink clip, the A/C code, the floor fastener working up near the bedroom, and the passenger-side wheel well. The rivets are already handled. Then the truck headed home light, and the Airstream got the care 6,244 miles earned it.

The full home-to-dealer run came to 49.1 miles of towing at 1.02 mi/kWh, the kind of number that makes the point of the whole trip: even the boring service hop is data.

Detailed charging data

3 receipts, app screens, pedestal displays, and Rivian dashboard readouts. Click through with the arrows; tap the tile to view full size.

The home-to-Rio leg, 15.1 miles towing, charging at the 40-stall V4 site at 4 AM on cheap off-peak rates.
99.9 kWh for $33.97 at $0.34 per kWh, the off-peak rate that made staging overnight worth it.
The drop-off dashboard. Trip A reads 6,293.9, the running odometer since before the 6,244-mile loop, holding 1.28 mi/kWh lifetime towing.
Fund the next leg