This makes two for me. The first was about ten years ago also while driving home from work. It was much more spectacular.
Northbound you say? Headed away from the border?
I once saw a daytime firefall in Colorado...it was amazing!
Are you sure you arn’t in Ireland?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2443648/posts
I did see a spectacular fireball about 15 years ago. Lit up my whole backyard and had a roaring sound as it headed south. Looked about the size of a basketball in the sky. I later read that it crashed into the Pacific Ocean.
I saw a big firey one once—turned out to be a space shuttle returning.
They will get your attention. I was driving to a turkey hunting area before dawn in the mountains between Pueblo and Colorado Springs in 1993 when a meteor hit the atmosphere, calved into two large pieces and disappeared behind the mountains. I brought the truck to a screeching halt as my night vision was gone; it was like a two second flash bulb right in the eyes.
While skidding to a stop I had a micro nightmare, as I was recently assigned to C-Springs, and Cheyenne Mountain (NORAD) was only 10 miles North. I had been talking recently to a Lieutenant on what had in the past been targeted (as far as ICBMs) on NORAD based on estimates from Soviet sources. I had a brief fear for .1 seconds that I was watching a 25 megaton warhead on it’s final trajectory.... Funny what you think of in time compression when your adrenaline hits. I never saw anything in the news, others must have seen it though. It was amazingly bright.