Day 01 / 02
Tuesday, June 16, 2026
San Diego → Airstream of San Diego (San Marcos)
Dropping the camper for the post-trip service list
- 40 miles
- ~1h plus a charge stop drive hours
- Escondido-area charge (planned) first charge
- Home, San Diego tonight
Weather: Mild coastal-north San Diego County, easy towing weather
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Day 01 in pictures
The day
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Home, San Diego, depart
Hitch up the Airstream one more time and head north on I-15. After 6,244 miles, this short run is the unglamorous part, getting the trailer the care it earned.
Map 32.7157, -117.1611
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Escondido-area charge (planned)
At 35% state of charge with the trailer on, a top-up here means we arrive with margin and the truck can get back home without sweating it.
Map 33.1192, -117.0864
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Airstream of San Diego, San Marcos
Drop the camper at 251 Travelers Way for the post-trip list, the broken sink clip, the rivets, the A/C error code, a floor fastener working up near the bedroom, and the passenger-side wheel well. Most of it we patched on the road; this is where it gets done right.
Map 33.1320, -117.1710
Where the electrons come from
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RAN charge Rivian Adventure Network / Tesla
Escondido-area charge (planned)
The truck came off the Chicago loop parked at 35% and still hitched, so a quick top-up on the 30-mile run north buys margin to arrive with charge and to get home after the drop-off.
The Chicago loop is closed, the essay is written, and the Rivian is parked. But the Airstream has a list.
Six thousand miles is hard on a trailer, and one stretch was harder than all the rest: 12 miles of unmaintained washboard the truck navigation routed us onto, the kind of road that shakes a 23-foot aluminum box like a paint mixer. Most of what it loosened we fixed on the road. A retaining clip on the sink snapped clean, though, and you cannot permanently fix a broken clip with what is in the truck. The air conditioning fought the desert heat and threw a code we want a real answer on. So before the next trip, the camper goes to the dealer.
This run is short, barely 40 miles north up I-15 to Airstream of San Diego in San Marcos, but it starts the way the whole trip taught us to start: with a charge. The truck rolled off the Chicago loop sitting at 35% with the trailer still hitched, so a quick top-up on the way north buys the margin to drop the camper and get home without watching the percentage.
The repair list is the point. Towing is the beautiful part nobody minds photographing. This is the other half: rivets, fasteners, a wheel well, the things the road takes a little at a time. We are logging it because it is part of the honest picture of EV towing, and because what the shop finds usually teaches us something for the next 6,000 miles.