Love and Adventures

By Roy Paul Shields

Love and Adventures is about the adventures and the love that Paul and Kim shared.
Paul and Kim, and the Freedom Villagers are commissioned to bring up a sunken Greek sub. In the process they discovered a sunken city and were contracted by the Italian Government to recover sunken marble buildings. They learned of a sunken Roman ship loaded with treasure; after they had raised the marble buildings they searched and found the ship and recovered the treasure.
Through all this, Paul and Kim wrote their biography for a movie of their adventurous life They retired their much-loved ship the South Wind to Italy which became a protected tourist attraction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Roy Paul Shields
• Release date: Jul 4, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005849320

Roy Paul Shields

My name is Roy Paul Shields. I have worn many hats in my life’s journey. I have done everything I set out to do in life; from gold mining to driving race cars and everything in between. I make no pretense at being a writer; I am a dreamer and a story teller with a big imagination.About the AuthorRoy served in the Marine Corps reserve, then joined the Marines.While a military and businessman, owing his own businesses he has been a true Renaissance man, maintaining a strong creative side. He was a professional dancer, owning and operating his own studio In addition to writing literature, he also plays the trumpet and writes music, often in his own recording studio. Roy weaves his own experiences and knowledge in his stories.

Book preview

Love and Adventures

Love and Adventures

Freedom Villagers Series – Book 5

by Roy Paul Shields

Smashwords Edition – ISBN 9781005849320

PUBLISHED BY:

Roy Paul Shields

Love and Adventures

Copyright © 2021 by Roy Paul Shields

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

*****

Introduction to the Freedom Village Main Characters

Danielle - An old love of Paul’s, who is now, along with her husband, Bill, a good friend.

Kim – Paul’s wife. She was the Klamath River rafting guide in Depths of Terror hired to guide Gary and Paul on a Klamath River rafting adventure. Kim and Paul and married.

Gary - Paul’s next-door neighbor and good friend and partner in his adventures.

Lori – Married to Gary. Part of the team in Depths of Terror.

Terrie Wilkins - The Army Captain in Depths of Terror. Captured by Paul and Kim and eventually joined forces with them to do battle with the terrorist. Terri was made a Colonel and married Captain Randy Lawler.

The Colonel – (Thomas) The CO of Camp Pendleton. He was a good-hearted senior officer Marine ready to retire when he had to stay active to defend Camp Pendleton from the enemy in Depths of Terror.

The Chief (Naneeto) – A Sioux Indian Marine Captain and Paul’s backup and scout while fighting the enemies in the mountains in Out of Darkness. Became a Colonel and Base Commander.

Morgan – Kim’s sister

Cameron Dawkins – A friend and business associate of Kim’s father in gold casting. Joined the group in their Casting Company in Out of Darkness. Married Morgan.

Colton - Son of Morgan and Cameron

April-Daughter of Morgan and Cameron

Jenny - Took care of the cooking and cleaning for Marco DeAngello, the ship broker in Finders Keepers until Paul and Kim took her home with them where she became family

Sue Anne- Jenny’s niece who became part of the family in Finders Keepers. She took over for Jenny when Jenny sadly passed away.

Sal and Bristol Lafourte – The owner and his wife of the dive shop in Finders Keepers. Sal went on the diving adventure on Paul’s new boat the South Wind Two.

*Freedom drink – A chocolatey drink Kim invented that included medical cannabis

*San Jose - A ship built by Paul as a restaurant and tourist attraction in Finders Keepers.

As I lay there, I could hear Kim breath along with the sound and smell of the surf. I told her that I was just tired as the steps were getting a little more than I could handle. She asked if she made an appointment to see a doctor would I go. I knew this was important to her; it was time, actually I knew it past time that I had a good checkup. I said "OK, do you call, or do I call? She gave me a light elbow; I needed that.

The next morning, we had breakfast on the veranda; she held the coffee pot ready to pour me a cup of coffee; she said OK mister tough guy, I am calling to have an elevator installed!. I knew the stairs and I personally weren’t getting along all that well. She said last night did it, I have held off telling you, but I can no longer handle those stairs. It is either an elevator or I have to learn to go up and down those stairs on my hands and knees".

I had to laugh and said, You too?. I told her I had thought about sitting down and bouncing down the stairs on my rear end; she had a good laugh on that one. She asked if I had figured out how to bounce back up the stairs on my rear end. That one got us both laughing. I knew she was anxious to do some calling about in-home elevators; and yes, a doctor’s appointment for me.

Gary showed up and I had a second cup of coffee with him; I told him Kim was making a checkup appointment with a doctor for me; he laughed and said, you too? Lori made an appointment for me too. I told him Try this on for size, Kim decided that we need an elevator. He almost fell out of his chair laughing. He was still laughing when he said, there is no doubt Kim and Lori have put their heads together, we are getting an elevator too!

Kim came out and asked what was so funny? She said, I have an appointment for a checkup next Monday and we are getting two estimates for elevators tomorrow. Gary began laughing and asked Kim if she and Lori had talked this whole thing over; Needless to say, Kim began laughing. Kim told him Sort of! Gary said, Get the Freedom ready, we are going to have two elevator parties!.

Gary called Friday after his checkup; Other than high blood pressure he was in good shape; he was put on high blood pressure meds. My checkup went fairly well; Gary will crack up; I have high blood pressure and was put on high blood pressure meds also! I told Kim it was her fault as my blood pressure rose when we had gotten the two estimates on an elevator; both estimates came in close together. I told her eighteen thousand seemed sort of steep. She took me in her arms, put her nose and forehead on mine and said, Darling, when I am riding merrily along up and down our elevator and you are still trying to figure out to manage those stairs on your rear-end, it will be OK if you want to hitchhike rides on our elevator. I told her There are so many ways that I love you!

Gary stopped by for breakfast and coffee and to see if I had any good news to share with him. Both of our doctors told us basically the same thing, exercise was important. We both laughed at our stories of our experiences with our stairs. Strangely enough they were using one of the contractors we had received bids from and we, the other of the two. He again mentioned a party or something to welcome our elevators in. I laughed and told him first I had to see if Kim would let me use ours.

Gary and I both maintained a greenhouse garden; we each maintained a different strain of medical marijuana. Gary was the master of making the perfect flavors of Freedom.

He and I were getting to be the two old-timers at Freedom Village. He asked if I had any bright ideas for exercising. I told him For sure, I will bat the ball and you chase it; he said yeh, and how about up yours. I told him not to be nasty or I would tell Lori to wash his mouth out with soap. I told him on a more serious note, he and I liked the beach, so how about doing a couple of miles barefoot on the beach. Walking barefoot on the soft beach sand takes some serious effort. He said, how about we start tomorrow after breakfast?.

Kim was on her telephone and told us Lori said, how about you do five miles so the elevator crew could do their installation without your supervision. Gary asked for Kim’s phone; she handed him her phone and he said, Hi darling, on speakerphone; how about Paul and I head for town after our beach walk for a buffet breakfast?, Lori told him, Good idea, Kim and I can do a shopping trip while you boys feed your face. I told him Leave it to you to open mouth and insert your foot in your mouth.

That night Kim and I huffed and puffed our way up the stairs; She pulled me down to sit on the top step; She said, can you imagine if all goes right tomorrow, we will be riding our elevator up to bed?. I told her You know the story, don’t threaten me with a good thing. We opened a window halfway and fell asleep to the smell and sound of the surf. I thought I had just fallen asleep when Kim woke me sitting on the edge of the bed with a cup of coffee for me. She said Mark, the elevator installer, called and said the crew would be here in about an hour. He had measured and prefabbed everything; we were looking at about four to five hours for installation.

Gary was waiting on the veranda, and we had a cup of coffee before heading to the beach. We had just headed for the beach when Mark and crew pulled up. It was a windy day and the salty mist felt good on our faces. We had walked about a half mile when I found a quarter. Gary said, oh no; now I suppose you are going to go treasure hunting again. I told him no and because of his smart mouth I was not going to split the quarter with him. By the time we finished our beach walk we were both ready for biscuits and gravy with a pile of bacon.

After breakfast Gary wanted to look for some sprinkler heads for his greenhouse, I picked four for my greenhouse. I dropped him off at his house; it looked like, when I pulled up to my place, Mark’s vehicle was still there but his crew was gone. When I walked in, he was just adjusting the latch on the elevator door. He said, Good timing and handed Kim and I each a key; he told us if we had company and they had children it would be best to keep the door locked. There was a separate button for up and down, a button to open and close the door, and a red button in case anything ever went wrong, and we needed an immediate service tech. He told us there was a battery backup in case there was ever a power failure.

He opened the door and said, Shall we?. The ride up was so smooth we could barely tell it was moving; he said, what goes up must come down then told Kim to take us down; it was just as smooth going down and a very soft stop. I gave Mark a check and thanked him. As he headed for his truck he said, any problems give me a call. Kim said After dinner we will do the jacuzzi with a pipe and a glass of peppermint Freedom she had made. I asked her Can we have dinner now? She told me No, go tend to your garden and get a couple of good buds".

She surprised me and had prawns for dinner. I could tell I had done a good chug on the beach as my legs were ready for the Jacuzzi; Kim told me the steps that I had built to get in and out were just what the doctor ordered. The peppermint Freedom she had made required two glasses. She told me careful, as it had a lot of kickapoo; a couple of hits on the pipe and I was glad I included a handrail on the steps that I built. When she opened the elevator, I picked her up and carried her in. She asked why I did that, and I told her because I loved her. When we opened the elevator door we were in our bedroom; I told he How about that, we aren’t even breathing hard; she laughed and said So? I told her I thought it would be a good idea if she put her fur robe on and turn our phones off after we showered. We slept until noon the next day.

The next morning, we didn’t turn our phones on until we were on the veranda having breakfast; Kim made a seafood omelet that left nothing to be desired; she told me Jenny had taught her how to make it. We all still missed Jenny; she was a treasure of a person.

A vehicle pulled up and Sal and Bristol and their three kids. They were on the way to their kid’s school that was putting on a play and their kids were all in it. Sal’s parents watched their kids when he and Bristol were out to sea. First things first and the kids had to try the elevator; Kim finally got them away from the elevator with a tray of her cookies and a glass of chocolate milk.

We all sat on the veranda having a glass of tea. We could tell something was up the way Sal and Bristol were acting; Finally, Bristol said Go ahead Sal. Sal asked if we had ever thought of visiting Greece. I told them Greek and Roman history had always interested me. He said the ambassador of Greece had contacted them; Greece has lost a submarine off the coast of the Island Iraklion. Heraklion, the sub, had been carrying classified equipment and was imperative the sub be recovered. Would we be able to help in this dire situation? Before anyone said any more, Kim looked at me and gave us a very emphatic NO!.

I asked Sal if he had checked the water depth. He told us the deepest in the area where the sub supposedly went down, was 3,294 feet. We went in and turned on my computer. We found a DSVS underwater two-man salvage vehicle. Equipped the way needed to assist in the sub’s recovery, if we even found the sub, was a staggering eighteen million dollars. Kim said, Don’t even think it; I told her I didn’t say We. I told Sal to work up a figure and I would help him work up a final figure for the Ambassador. That afternoon we located two barges with cranes that would set us back eight million. Combined they could lift the submarine. The next day Sal and I worked up the salvage figure.

Barring any major setbacks, if we in fact found the sub, it would cost Greece seventy-five million dollars to bring the sub up with fifty mil down for beginners. I asked Kim if she would like to visit Greece and Italy; she asked did that mean I would be diving? I told her only if Sal really needed me to. She said, so I suppose, here we go again. I told her thru all of this, we would make this a great tour of all that Greece and Italy has to offer. We called Gary and Lori to talk to them; Kim and I agreed if we go, they go too. We had barely begun to talk to Gary and Lori when Gary jumped and said, Let’s get to packing! Lori shook her head and said, here we go again.

Sal had a DSVS shipped to the shipyard in Greece that we would work out of. It was their three-man model. I called Deniece and Bill and gave them the scoop; they were both excited and asked when do we start? Kim told them we would call when we had more put together. We called Morgan and Cameron and invited them, and Colton and April, over for dinner to talk this new adventure over and see what they thought. Kim called Lori and they decided to make dinner a potluck. Kim called Terri and Terri said she and Ron would be there for dinner.

Good old Gary, he and Lori showed up and of course Gary had a cooler of Freedom. We had chicken and dumplings and all of the fixings to go with it, thanks to Sue Anne. We said Grace and Gary began to sing Hail- Hail the gangs all here and we all joined in singing. After dinner we began to talk about the upcoming adventure; Colton stood up and told us count him in. He had grown to be a strapping teenager. Kim had called Danielle and included her into what was going on. Danielle told Kim if we could bunk her and Bill up, they would be here in the next couple of days. Lori said it seemed that we had done something like this before.

That night in the Jacuzzi, Kim said, well it looks like you have done it again. I told her No, Sal and Bristol got this whole thing started. Kim said, yes they started a little fire and you put logs on what is now a big fire. I told her But I bet we’ll have a great time in Greece and Italy. Kim gave me a quizzical look and asked if I had more in mind than the sunken submarine? Kim knew me so well; I told her that I was sure she had heard of the sunken city of Atlantis. Kim still had it and I caught her left hook in the shoulder. She told me that I was one sneaky Pete. I rubbed my shoulder and told her it is a good thing that I loved her; she said Oh yeh? and held up her left fist and said it was a good thing that she loved me! I had to laugh; this lady was one of a kind!

Sal and Bristol stopped by just after Kim and I finished breakfast to update us; the ambassador was pushing for a date when the salvage would begin. Sal said we had the people, and the important equipment that would be needed, so what did I think? I told him before we head off on this adventure, we had better check on food and fuel suppliers in the area that we would be working out of. He asked if Kim and I would mind flying over to lay out the proper groundwork for this mission; I told him to ask Kim. Kim said as long as Gary and Lori went, we could be ready next week. Sal gave Kim a credit card and told her she was the boss; I had to chuckle; a truer thing was never said; I depended on Kim for all of the important decisions in our lives.

Kim called Lori and it was evident she and Lori had already talked this whole thing over. She hung up and told us that she would have a travel agent get flights for next week, which gave us plenty of time to get ready. I called Danielle, and her and Bill could here by the day after tomorrow. Bristol held out her hand for the phone; when she hung up, she said it was a done deal, Danielle and Bill would stay with them until departure time. Kim told us Stacey, the travel agent, would have an interpreter at the airport to greet us and our lodging would be confirmed. I had begun to get a little nervous; we were heading into a country that other than historical things we had read about, we knew nothing.

Sal told us if there were no hiccups, it would take two weeks, or a little less, from shore to shore. He asked if we could get everyone that was going, to be at their place as soon as Bill and Danielle arrived. That night in the Jacuzzi Kim asked if maybe this was all coming down too fast? I asked her if she could see that my head was spinning. I told her everyone involved had been on the sea going adventure before and it will all move along just as we have planned. I thought to myself "I hope. As we stood in front of the elevator Kim asked if she should be the operator. As I reached to push the up button, she pushed my arm away and said she would do the honor and pressed the up button. She looked at me with her impish little smile and said, Thank you". The sound and smell of the surf did its magic, and we were both soon sound asleep.

For the next couple of days, it seemed like everyone was excited and in a hurry. We stopped by to check on Cameron and Morgan; Colton told us he was raring to go. I asked if he had peanut butter and jelly in his backpack. He laughed and told us his mom had hid the peanut butter and jelly. April was pouting and told us her mom told her she was to still a little young to be a diver. I told her to make sure that she brought her swimming suit, and we would make sure she had plenty of time in the water. Time flies, and not necessarily when you’re not having fun.

A couple of days before departure we did a check, check, and double check to make sure everyone had what they thought that they would need. A bus would take them all over to the South Wind Two. Kim, Gary, Lori and I would fly over in three days to hopefully have everything ready when the South Wind Two docked in Greece. I told Kim I would rather be doing the South Wind Two run than flying over. She said, All right mister tough guy, I arranged for one-way tickets. I told her there were so many reasons that I loved her. Bimini Electronics furnished us ship-to-shore radios so that we would be able to stay in contact with our adventurers while they were at sea.

After the Jacuzzi, Kim and I stood in front of the elevator; she took my hand and pushed the up button with my finger; she said there, did that make you happy? I laughed and told her she was really something. She said, Oh really, have you figured out what that something may be?. I took her in my arms, put my nose and forehead on hers and told her No, but tonight is a good night to find out. I should have known what was coming; her left hook on my shoulder caught me off guard. As we got out of the shower, she put her fur robe on and said, my phone is off, is yours? I got a smile that hurt my face. We both had to laugh as we slowly got out of bed at eleven AM the next morning.

Gary and Lori had everyone at their place for chicken and dumplings that Sue Anne had helped prepare; yes, Sue Anne was going over on the ship to make sure everyone had good meals. Gary gave a toast, using his Freedom of course, wishing everyone a safe enjoyable journey across the ocean. Morgan took a lot of pictures which was good as I knew this would possibly be the last adventure together; Father Time waits for no one. We were going to have breakfast buffet and the bus would depart from there. The next morning after breakfast, and after a lot of hugs, we waved goodbye; I still wished Kim and I would be on the boat with them.

As we headed home Gary asked, what do we do now? I told him for beginners we could check our garden and choose a bud; we could take our pipes and buds and go down and make sure the surf was OK and smoke and solve the world’s problems. Kim asked what about Lori and I said, didn’t I mention Big buds? Freedom Village felt deserted and lonely for the next few days. The Chief told us thankfully he had Kitty and Tammie and Charley he might just go on the war path. I told him he and Kitty could have gone along; he very indigently told us that he was a Sioux warrior and not a duck footed landlubber. Kim laughed and said, I guess he told you! As we boarded the plane Kim said, "pieta and humus here we come’. I told her don’t forget the kalamatas; Kim and I could make a meal out of these tasty Greek items. Only Gary, he asked if we could get biscuits and gravy in Greece. I told him it won’t be long until we can find out. Kim and Lori were already planning shopping trips; I told them there are no Greek shops on the ship. I should have known it; I caught Kim’s left hook on my shoulder.

******

I was lucky that I had no problem sleeping on a long flight. We all had back packs as we had our crew take our luggage on the bus going to the ship. I am sure that we looked like four lost souls as we stood looking around in the airport lobby; I chuckled and said, I don’t imagine one of you speak or read Greek.

About then an older man came over to us and in good broken English with a smile said, "I believe we are looking for each other; I am Nickolos your