Crazy in KC

I hadn't planned to spend $100 in an Overland Park liquor store but all the yummy options overwhelmed me. I found myself going crazy, just like a beer geek in a beer store.
We stopped at a Sam's Club to pick some office supplies and I had planned to grab some Irish whiskey or bourbon to top of my flask before we headed out to a blues bar that evening. I forgot we were in Kansas where the laws regarding beer and liquor are kind of weird, at least when someone's used to Missouri or Iowa laws. Anyway a Sam's Club butcher said Sam's had no liquor and if I wanted beer I should probably go to the liquor store on the south end of the parking lot because all I would find in Sam's was 3.2 beer. I took his advice.
At the liquor store I found some Bushmills but alongside what I usually buy was a 10-year-old Bushmills single malt for about $15 more than I usually pay. What the heck, I thought, this is a vacation despite it's brevity.
With bottle in hand I could have simply headed toward the checkout and been done but no matter where I go if there's beer for sale I have to see if there's anything I haven't tried. I found an amazing assortment. Stouts, Belgian ales, IPAs, imperial stouts, pilsners and many, many more from all over the world filled a shelf about 8 feet tall and 12 feet wide. I picked up a bottle of Three Philosophers, a Belgian ale made with cherries, I thought I might try. Then I saw a Belgian triple. An then an imperial stout. I sat the Three Philosophers on the floor and began looking at all the untried beer when one of the guys working there walked up and said, "If you like Belgian beer, try that Maredsous."
So I picked one up, put it on the floor and said to him, "Do you have cart?"
The next thing I knew, I was headed toward the checkout with four big bottles of beer I'd never before tried, the single malt Bushmills and bottle of Pyrat rum, even though I hadn't even walked in for rum. I just like rum and can never find anything but Bacardi around here. Guess it was an impulse buy.
As I checked out, I knew I had gone way, way overboard and told the guy "Don't tell my wife I've been here." He said "I don't even know your wife, sir."
"Even better," I told him.
Of course my wife found out and I immediately fessed up. Right now we're sampling the Maredsous triple, a big 10 percent alcohol ale with a big creamy head, amber color, no hop aroma, and strong alcohol smell and taste. I guess it's not bad but somehow I wished it had been better.
That's OK though. The Pyrat was excellent. The best rum I've ever had. The Bushmills I'll try later. And we've got three more new beers to sample: the Three Philosophers, a Lagunitas Hop Stoopid (a high hopped — 102 IBU — ale that both scares me and intrigues me) and an Espresso Oak Ages Yeti imperial stout from the Great Divide Brewing Company that also just sounded fascinating. I'll keep you posted.
Oh yeah, and while in Kansas City I picked up a Boulevard IPA and pale ale because I've long enjoyed Boulevard and believe they deserve my support.
Let's just hope next weekend in KC I don't got crazy again but if opportunity arrises I know what's going to happen.