Andy Carriger came all the way from Texas to see the Douglas County Free Fair.

Carriger lived in Lawrence before moving in 2000 to The Woodlands, a suburb north of Houston, for a job opportunity.

But, he said, he still misses Kansas and decided to drive up with his 14-year-old daughter, Hope, so she could visit some of her friends.

Carriger recently went to the Montgomery County Fair in Texas. He said it was more upscale than the Douglas County fair, but didn’t think that was necessarily a good thing.

“This is more based on agriculture. It’s more real,” Carriger said. “Everyone there (in Montgomery County) wants a little ranchette, 20 acres and a couple of horses.”

The sights, sounds and smells of the annual fair were in full force Tuesday — the first day that the carnival opened and the start of judging of thousands of exhibits and animals.

“I won a purple ribbon and a red ribbon,” said Timber Supancic, 8, who made chocolate chip cookies with nuts, and banana nut bread. She lives south of Eudora and is a member of the Meadowlark 4-H Club.

Asked what those ribbons meant, her mother, Carol Supancic, answered, “They mean she did real good.”

Margaret Kalb, executive secretary of the fair, said there were more than 6,000 exhibits pre-entered and she expected 2,000 to 3,000 more entries.

Jacob Cox, 13, of the Eudora 4-H Club, puts one of his Rhode Island Red chickens into its pen at the Douglas County Free Fair. Cox brought in his birds for the poultry competition check-in Tuesday.

The entries included food, arts and crafts, rocketry, electronics, forestry, geology, home environment, photography, fine arts and woodworking.

In Building 21, Matthew Kelso, 9, and his brother Mason, 7, sat with their mother, Robyn Kelso, and their calves, Junior and Pistol. They also had a cow named Cindy, although Mason said sometimes they called her Windy and sometimes Cinderella.

For Matthew, this was his third year of competition. He said he enjoyed competing, “so long as we learn something. That’s what my mother says.”

Last year, he said, “I learned the advantage of crossbred over purebred, hybrid vigor.”

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They’ll show their animals Thursday. Meanwhile, the boys said, they pet them and talk about them to whoever wants to know. “Everyone will try to get grand champion,” Matthew said.