Great post. I saw a night launch of the Space Shuttle once, from Statesboro GA. This was back when they still televised the launches. I watched the countdown on TV, then went outside and looked south, and there it was. I could see it from that far away.
Amazing that you could see it from so far away. I scheduled a summer vacation once at the town of Cape Canaveral, had a beach house just south of the KSC. A shuttle launch was scheduled for that week but it got postponed. Bummer. Never saw one go up in all my years as a space program geek.
I did the same thing with this night Apollo launch.
From Miami it was quite the site, a giant orange fireball streaking across the sky growing fainter, then a bright flash when the first stage separated. It then turned into a star size and color which vanished in seconds.