Similar. We had our 5 kids in the rental van, driving from Orlando east. All the play-by-play was on the radio and we pulled into the median as it launched, still 10 miles west of the cape. It was dark and 6 am. March 2000 ish.
Still got the 8mm video of it.
Glad you got to see it. Any sound?
Now how many kids do you have? ;-)
I am 90% sure I saw that same launch. Night launches were extremely rare.
It had been delayed for about a week and it just so happened the launch (Endeavor? — beleive it was STS 96 at 10:00 PM: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/archives/sts-97.html) was the week I was there. We drove towards the cape until we got to a stretch of highway (528?) with a clear view of the launchpad and a BUNCH of cars pulled over to observe.
I don’t remember any sound but it was the BRIGHTEST light I have ever seen in my life outside of the Sun itself. Even from miles away.