I got lost myself on Sunday. What should have been a 45-minute flight took two times that long, partially due to a headwind but mostly due to my stooging blindly around like an idiot.
All was well as I cruised along southward, noting various towns as I passed by (but not keeping a written record of the specific times: Mistake No.1). Then there seemed to be a prolonged period when there were no ground features below or ahead (probably due to the headwind). I began to doubt my dead reckoning (Mistake No.2), and after some minutes of indecision, I persuaded myself that I was west of track so I turned 90 degrees to the right (Mistake No.3). Although I came to several towns, I couldn't identify them on the chart. After about 15 minutes (felt like two hours) I found one that had the town name on the watertower (should be a legal requirement!); I was much farther northeast than I should have been.
Altogether a poor show!
Several lessons learned, anyway.
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... you could always pick a nearby navaid [VOR / NDB] and in conjunction with DME you can be pretty certain where you are. There is nothing wrong with using Navaids to fix your position, in fact it shows good airmanship.
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Ha ha! Like any plane I fly would have fancy radio thingys installed!