One of the best camping tips I have ever gotten is from my sister-in-law and it is to use clothespins to attach lights to the camping awning.

When I first started camping I bought rolls of twist tie material and spent what seemed like hours cutting lengths of it and using it to attach lights to the support bars of the awning. I stopped putting lights up for a while because I decided it wasn’t worth the work.

Then I tried winding the lights around the support bars but that only worked with the small Christmas tree lights I had and not my bigger lantern type lights. Plus it didn’t look good and it wrecked some of the lights.

Finally, my sister-in-law, who loves to put lots of lights up at her campsite, told me to use clothespins and attach the lights to the awning canvas instead. It was really good advice.

The clothespins work great, are inexpensive, are something I keep in the camper anyway to hang up wet towels and clothing, and make putting up and taking down lights fast and easy.

Give them a try.

Cayo Costa State Park is one of the largest underdeveloped barrier islands in Florida. It is accessible only by private boat or ferry (about a 20 minutes ferry ride) but is worth the trip. Although there is not any RV camping available at the park, there is tent camping as well as cabin and yurt rentals.

Admission to the park is $1 (on the honor system) but that fee is waived if you are camping.

There are 30 tent sites in the campground, reserveable through Reserve America with a maximum of 8 people allowed on each site. Each site has a picnic table and ground grill. Bathrooms and showers are located nearby (toilets are flush toilets but showers are cold water so be prepared). Check in time at the tent sites is 3 pm. Checkout is at 1 pm. The cost is $18 per night.
The 12 cabins are also reserveable through Reserve America but they are popular so make reservations early. Up to 6 people are allowed per cabin with check in at 4 pm and checkout at 11 am. They are primitive with three plank bunk beds and a table. They don’t have electricity or any other amenities, but the views and proximity to the beach make up for it. There are bathrooms and showers nearby (again, the showers are cold water), as well as grills for cooking. Cabins cost $27.52 per night.

When planning an overnight trip, make sure to bring in your own food and beverages as there is no access to any on the island (unless you make friends with one of your camping neighbors). The park follows a carry-in, carry-out policy so all your garbage goes back out with you. But, the ranger on the island does sell ice.

If you have a dog, it’s welcome at the park, but not on the beaches or by the cabins so if you are overnight camping with your dog you will need to tent camp.

If you are planning a trip to the island in the summer, be prepared for bugs and mosquitoes and bring a supply of insect repellent.

Some things to do and enjoy on the island:
The beaches - There are about 9.5 miles of beaches on the Gulf of Mexico. They are a great place for shelling (especially in the winter months), swimming, snorkeling, fishing (everyone over the age of 16 is required to have a state of Florida fishing license), hiking, and sunbathing.

Biking and hiking - Bike rentals are available from the park ranger for a half day or full day. Nature trails (about 6 miles of them) on the island are a great place to do bird watching, especially in the spring and fall when birds are on their migratory journeys.

Kayaking - Kayak rentals are available from Tropic Star of Pine Island (239.283.0015)

Fishing - Click on this link to see if you need a fishing license, and if so, what kind. Your trip will get ruined in a hurry if you get fined for fishing without a license. If you go surf fishing from the island, you can catch flounder, snook, trout, redfish, snapper, whiting, sheepshead, and tarpon.

Watch the Sea Turtles - nesting season is from May to September.

Enjoy the ranger programs - On Wednesdays and Saturdays at 10 am the park ranger has varying programs about the island and its inhabitants at the park’s amphitheater . On Thursdays or Fridays from October to April the ranger has an evening campfire program. Call 941.964.0375 for specific information or stop at the ranger station on the way into the park for program titles and times.

Ferry service to the island/park is provided by Tropic Star of Pine Island and departs from Pineland, Florida. Reservations are required on the ferry and there is a fee. Call Tropic Star at 239.283.0015 for specifics.

For more information on the park, click here to visit their official website; or click here to download a park brochure. Click here to download a map of the park.

Cooking over an open fire is one of the great experiences of camping out. It’s a unique event in the life of a camp out that simply cannot be replicated by any other vacation or at home pastime. While camp fire cooking requires some preparation and a little bit of skill, it is something that can easily be taught to children. Camp fire cooking offers a wide variety of options and recipes and it will become a high point of any family camp out.

When you think of camp fire cooking, one of the first things you think of is holding that hot dog or marshmallow on a sharpened stick over the fire until it is a little over done or burnt and then eating it while it is still hot. In fact, you probably won’t be able to talk the children out of a weenie roast as one of the often repeated activities of any camp out that involves a camp fire.

Sometimes there is some concern about the sanitary aspects of such an activity. The aspect of roasting hot dogs over the fire does not have to include the use of native sticks that are stuck through the hot dog. You can purchase metal roasters that are custom designed for holding a hot dog or other roastable items to be held over the fire. However, many people find a fun way to get by without that extra expense. Just pack some unpainted wire clothes hangers in your camping supplies. With pliers you can unravel the hanger and straighten it out and it can be used as a fine weenie roaster and thrown away when you are done.

For the “fire warden” in the family, the perfect open fire for roasting hot dogs or marshmallows is a fire that has been going a while so there are some nice mellow coals for those who don’t want to try to work with an open flame. A well seasoned fire is also one that isn’t flaming violently. If the fire is down to a nice mellow blaze, that is a good setting for extending your holder over the heat to cook your dogs.

But for most meals that you will cook in the fire, that bed of coals is the key to successful outdoor cooking. Start an hour or so before you are ready to cook and get the fire going for a while so plenty of embers are built up when you are ready to cook. Another trick is to lay a base of charcoal down as you start the fire and let those coals get good and hot so you have a bed of coals that is easily manipulated.

When it is time to cook, its best to move burning logs to the edge of the fire pit and/or put them out so you don’t have those hot spots to deal with as you cook. If you can build a firewood “wall” around your coals, that can serve to contain the heat and it’s a good use of smoldering logs that can later to stirred up again when its time to return to a burning fire. But even if you have a stable bed of coals, you will need a long handled tong, spatula and barbeque fork so you can manage your food without burning your hands or wrists.

Usually food you cook in the camp fire will be enclosed in aluminum foil to prevent scorching and so your food doesn’t pick up soot and dirt. Get the heavy duty kind so it will survive the trip into and out of the fire. Many items can be cooked without a lot of preparation by just wrapping them in foil and laying them in the coals. Baked potatoes come out great this way as do baked apples. For an extra good taste, remove the apple core, cut a small “plug” to put back in the apple and fill the rest of the tunnel with “red hot: candies. These will melt into the apple for an amazing taste treat. Another old timer’s trick of camp fire cooking is to take a large onion and core it like you would an apple. Fill the middle of the onion with butter and plug the ends and cook it like a baked potato in the fire. The cooked buttery onion will be big camp fire treat to use as a side dish.

Hamburgers and grill items can be cooked over the fire or coals if you brought a grill with small legs on it so you can keep the burgers above the blaze. You can use the grill from your back yard barbeque but you will need to construct a stand for it using firewood so the grill can rest several inches above the fire. Also be mindful of the fat dripping into the fire and the potential of flames. This is another good reason to always keep a bucket of water next to the camp fire at all times.

Most of these ideas are very simple meals but you can use a concept called foil packs to put together a casserole type of meal. A foil pack is an aluminum foil “purse” that you fill with food and put right down in the coals to cook many different items together. You can make the foil pack by laying out a large swatch of aluminum foil and folding it in half. Fold the edges over to seal the ends and at the corners, fold them in and seal the corners so they won’t leak. Leave the top open with a flap that can be closed once the food goes in.

It’s always fun to let people assemble their foil packs before cooking. At the camp site, offer instant rice, soup, butter, seasonings, canned vegetables and precooked meat that people can combine into their pack. You can use your imagination in the types of things you put into foil packs and experiment to create your own recipes. The key to the success of a foil pack is to put plenty of water, soup or some other edible fluid inside so the food doesn’t scorch as you will be putting the foil pack right down into the coals.

When everything is ready, carefully place the foil pack on the coals and let it cook for 20 minutes or so before turning and cooking the other side about the same amount of time. You will need long handled thongs to remove the pack. If you have several people making their own foil packs have everyone put their initials on theirs with a marker so each camper can enjoy their own food. Without fail, they will declare their own foil pack to be the best meal they ever ate.

Camp fire cooking is a passion that you can grow with as you add more recipes and learn from other camper’s new and fun ways to use your campfire for cooking purposes. It isn’t a bad skill to build up just in case you find yourself in a survival situation. But for most of us, the love of camp fire cooking is great because it adds another level of excitement to the camp out and its just good fun.