Pre GPS, was LORAN C, which some of us thought was a navigational miracle, (until we tastes GPS!). Before LORAN C, and for flights in the north where VOR's and ADF's were not available, there was dead reckoning. You go good, or you got lost. Plan to fly into a lake you've never before seen, to get out the wreck of the guy who had not seen it before last week. That's where it is, go get it. That's when you draw a line on a chart, and the 10 mile marks, and follow it like a hawk. If you get off course, all the lakes look the same, and there are no other features which distinguish your location. As you fly over small and large lakes, whose appearance resembles the blue spot on the chart, you track your progress, and forecast your arrival time to the destination lake. You arrive on time to a shoreline, and then wonder if it the right lake. You circle, and find what you're looking for, and set up your approach. You're going to have to do it all again backward in a day or so.
GPS seems to have made that a thing of the past - of course I'll follow the magenta line!
I brought a 182 back nearly all the way across Canada last year. Across central Saskatchewan (which is effectively featureless) in less than ideal, though still VFR weather, the panel GPS, then both of my hand held Garmins could not receive enough satellites to create a fix - for over an hour! There were no VOR's to receive at my low altitude. I saw a road, and turned south (toward more civilization) and followed it. I continued south to an intersection, and continued east. (forgot to signal turn).
I've had four or five events over the years, when the satellite geometry prevented a useable fix for many minutes at a time. Be ready, just in case, but it's rare...
Some technology just makes things better forever - GPS is one of those....