Sara Noel at Frugal Village took on camping tips as her topic for her Sunday newspaper column this week. You’ll find it on page 3E of Sunday’s print and e-editions of The Monroe Evening News, or here at Sara’s web site.

A snippet:

CAREFUL PACKING: Don’t pack the tent first, forcing you to unpack the trunk to get to it. If it rains, all your stuff will be soaked while you’re fighting to get to the tent. If you’re going to a place that has comfort stations, bring shower flip-flops to use in there, and don’t set up camp too close to the comfort station. It’s noisy, and it smells. — Shorty, Canada

For nearly 15 years, my grandparents, parents, siblings and cousins spent our summer holiday weekends at a family cabin in Ashtabula County, Ohio. It was always difficult, because of work schedules and heavy traffic on a holiday weekend, for my husband and I to arrive at the cabin before 9 or 10 p.m. Friday.

By that time, it was too dark on the wooded lot to set up our tent. But the cabin was too crowded for all but a few people to sleep inside. Most of us brought our own tents, and my parents always brought their camper.

So here was my trick: my parents normally arrived at least a few hours before we could. I’d take our tent bag over to their house ahead of time, and my dad and one of the other relatives would put up our tent in the yard upon their arrival.

Our car then held the rest of our gear.