Duct Tape: Use #762
By far, one of our most useful purchases for our world adventure has been a good, old fashioned roll of duct tape. We constantly find new and random uses for it. Here’s our latest …
We arrived in Cape Town and picked up our rental car from a snarky rental clerk at the airport. She asked us if a Fiat was OK and that sounded fine to us. But what we soon realized was that she had given us a basic, no frills, base model piece of junk. After a quick search we located a single power/cigarette lighter on the center console just below the stick shift. We were glad to have at least one of these as it’s the only way we can power our GPS navigation unit. Without it, we’re lost … literally.
We plugged in the GPS unit, keyed in our destination and waited for the satellites to locate us. Everything was going fine until we started moving. That’s when any sort of bump would eject the power cord from the cheap and flimsy outlet. No matter how we twisted or how much force we applied, it simply would not securely hold the charger in place. So, we found ourselves losing power to the GPS and losing our directions when we needed them most.
The only solution was to apply pressure to the top of the plug in order to keep it securely in place. On our first few trips in the car, my fingers got weary from holding the plug in place. We had some long road trips planned and I wouldn’t be able to keep pressure on the plug the whole time. So, we broke out the duct tape and found a hands-free solution that would keep the plug in place while we were driving. Although not 100% fool proof, the jimmied duct tape solution has helped ensure our GPS has a more reliable power source.
So, our latest use for duct tape is establishing a reliable power source for our must-have GPS unit!
