“The world is a book, and those who do not travel, read only a page,” Saint Augustine wrote.

Not only does junior Cayleigh Reeder travel in books, but she does in person as well.

“My parents think that travel is perfect family time and experiences worth having. I’ve enjoyed every trip. But I hope to continue to travel with them even after I leave home,”  Reeder said.

The Reeder family has traveled to many places around the world.

“We went to Thailand three or four years ago. We’ve gone to the old and new Mexico, almost everywhere in the Northwest U.S., Canada, Seattle, Alaska, which was different and unique, New York, Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina,” Cayleigh’s father, Bruce, Reeder said.

Of the many trips, Reeder’s favorite was a cruise to Alaska, which was her first cruise.

“My favorite memory was probably the last night of the cruise [to Alaska]. My brother and I and the two new friends we had made ate dinner together, dinners on the ship were to die for, and then we played hide and go seek and shuffle board out on the deck. Sounds lame…but it was amazing,” Reeder said. “Dog sledding was amazing. We went by helicopter from where the ship docked up to the glacier. There was a little camp complete with dog houses, tent kitchen, and sturdy living tents. The ride was a fairly short little circle, but it was an amazing experience all the same.”

The Reeder family has also gone to Thailand to visit Bruce Reeder’s college friend Jeff Horey and his family Kai, his wife, and Grace, their daughter, who is about the same age as Reeder. The Horey family owns an ostrich farm in Thailand and goes their every summer. Last summer the Horey family was accompanied by the Reeder family.

“When she was in Thailand, she traveled with one of her old friends and she was always afraid that when her old friend, who spoke Thai fluently, spoke to someone in Thai, that they were talking about her,” junior Nikki Gregory said.

Gregory traveled to Maryland with Cayleigh during the second week of November to visit her grandparents at their farm.

“We always have fun together. When we went to Maryland we looked at the boards for the flights and like 10 minutes later we found out we were looking at arrivals instead of departures, we felt pretty stupid,” Gregory said.

According to Bruce Reeder, his family “makes a point of traveling,” almost every summer they travel to “show [the kids] different ways of life.”

“I like the opportunity to experience new things together. Every new place we visit is an adventure. I like to see their enjoyment and fears’, it’s neat to enjoy it and see it through their eyes,” he said.

Travel plays a major role in Cayleigh’s life.

“I got to travel a lot as a kid; you learn about the world, you get more accepting of the world. It expands your horizon and makes you more open minded. I think everyone should travel as much as they can. It would make the world a better place if people would just travel,” Bruce Reeder said.

Bu Genna Owen