That’s okay, I was off on the date, it was 1987, 1997 was a typo. They are not that rare. Mine, the 1987 apparition, moved from south to north. I was driving east on I-64 between Richmond and Williamsburg, near midnight, when I saw it, passing almost overhead. Very bright.
The kne I saw was South to north too. It was quite late when saw it, smoking my last cigarette for the day