Boundaries are an excellent idea, in the Marines we called them "Catching features" when we were doing our land navigation. I use the same techniques for the air. (eg "If I keep road to my right and treeline to my left, I maintain heading. If I cross the river I've gone too far.) As was mentioned before Flight Following is great. I'll call in once in a while to verfiy a checkpoint that I am passing over, especially if certian areas start to look identical. As someone else said on here, admitting you are lost will definitely save you by reorienting you, and possibly keeping you from doing somehting worse, like violating airspace (especially the ADIZ!!).