Appropriately enough, Steinbeck ends the story with him getting lost, this time in New York City. He's spent a lot of the story turned around, so it seems only fitting that he would get lost one last time—even though he's basically back on his home turf. We guess that's proof that you can have journeys and adventures, with all the pitfalls that go with them, even when you're at home. The policeman who helps him out with directions admits that he himself got lost just that past Saturday.
And so, Steinbeck signs off with the novel's final words: "And that's how the traveler came home again." Once again, as in the title, he emphasizes the journey rather than himself, referring to himself in the third-person to kind of highlight the fact that the quest itself is what's important, not his particular role in it.