"We had one small section of the country club building (basically a large room) and the edges of the property leading down into the river valley."
If this story is true, my guess is they were either wandering the grounds or wandered through the role-playing room into "the edges of the property"
Then they started running into people dressed as wizards and elves all telling the portal story and they were so thoroughly convinced that they figured a better chance to getting back to the wedding was to find a wizard than to try walking back to the clubhouse or the grounds closer to it.
If I were in the Olive Garden, and suddenly I noticed that all the waiters and patrons were androids, and all of them claimed I was a computer simulation of a 2009 Homo Sapien running for their entertainment, I don't think my first thought would be "If I just leave the Olive Garden, all of this will go away" To these folks, a dozen people in scale mail would probably be nearly as convincing.
The basic premise of the article is that there is a reality external to ourselves that can be known outside of our particular systems of language and culture. If there isn't a transcendent "Truth out there" that can be grasped by a particular value system (science, religion, etc) then it is perfectly understandable that two people were convinced they were living in a different world. In other words, all worlds are "fantasy worlds," or if you like, "all worlds are real within the context of their particular systems of language."
(I'm not actually disputing the parent comment, just for the record. It just reminded me of something.)
I carry at least a couple $2s around constantly, as well as dollar coins and half-dollars, for tips. Whenever I travel, I pick up a few dollars worth of non-US currencies at the exchange booth, so I can throw one or two in with a normal tip.
For a long while, I thought that getting tips in a strange currency format doesn't make any difference. After working a coffee bar for a few years, "it's the thought that counts" took on a lot more meaning for me.
