Encounter of an Unusual Kind In Rush Spring OK

Friday night as soon as we got off work we headed to Oklahoma City with our best friends to have dinner with our boys and to say a prayer with them as they prepared to head for a 14 day mission trip to Kenya. We took dinner with us to save time, so we wouldn't interfere with with their meticulous process of packing (said with a nearly hysterical belly laugh).It wasn't late when we left their house but it was dark. As we drove away I unexpectedly begin to feel tears well up in my eyes. As a parent, it's an overwhelming experience to not only watch your children grow into adults but to also watch achieve their life long dreams. I couldn't help it, call it hormones, call it empty nest syndrome, call it whatever makes you happy but I silently cried from Oklahoma City to Rush Springs. I kept my head turned to the window with my face partially shielded by my cell phone. I had no desire for everyone in the car to know that I was bawling like a baby at the thought of 2 of my children being scattered to the far corners of the earth. So I sat starring out at the full moon. My husband would gently reach over and pat my hands knowing I was once again struggling with having my children grow up only to go far away. By the time we reached Rush Springs the tears had all but dried. My eyes felt like over stuffed marshmallows but I figured by the time we actually got home most of the swelling would be down and I would be able to act as natch as possible without having to answer any questions about my state of mind. Just as we passed what is probably the most well known speed trap in Oklahoma a sight over the highway traveling north caught my eye. It resembled a ball of fire moving at about 100 ft off the ground at a very slow rate of speed. Immediately it caught my attention at around the same time it caught the driver of our cars attention. It passed us going north and we pulled into an intersection and turned around to follow it. When we turned around it seemed to be hovering about 100 ft off of the ground directly over a turn around. We pulled into the turn around, opened all the windows and the sun roof to get a better look. I opted to hang halfway out the window but never once considered taking a picture of the thing with my cell phone. It hovered silently over the turn around just long enough for us to become even more confused and then began to ascend slowly,yet silently north west until it reached some low clouds at which time it kicked it into high gear and disappeared. Out of the 5 of us in the car, none of us had a clue as to what it could be. A hot air balloon? Probably not since they typically don't fly at night, especially in an area with high lines and such. A helicopter? Not likely since it appeared to be round with a distinctively fiery glow, not to mention the silence in which it traveled. A quick search of the Internet found a similar sighting the night before in Shawnee but the eye witness claimed it was a small plane on fire although search crews found nothing. I am probably the only one who will admit this... but I was highly disappointed when our vehicle did not begin to tremor as if being pulled by some magnetic force.... And although I can't be totally sure, I think my belly button was a little tender to the touch the next morning... LOL...JK. the five of us always set out to make a memory of some sort and although this wasn't exactly the memory we had in mind, it certainly was an encounter of an unusual kind.