Blimp shaped object with extremely bright lights hovered then rapidly dashed into the night's sky.

The following experience happened to me in my youth and I am not sure to the exact date.  I believe it happened between 1980 and 1982.  I would have been between 10 and 12 years old.
 One night before going to bed around 10:00 p.m., I was looking out the window of my bedroom in my family's 11th story apartment in Jersey City, NJ, when I noticed a large blimp shaped object hovering slowly toward our apartment complex.  I had often seen the Good Year Blimp passing by are apartment building, and being a child I always found them somewhat interesting and worth watching.  Back then, I liked to read the advertisements that scrolled along the side of the blimp in the array of lights that Good Year Blimps had for advertisements.
 This time however, something was different. As the object approached closer, I realized that the lights on the side of the object were not reading any messages or advertisements.  The lights were just flashing randomly.  My first impression was "wow, it must be broken". 
Then as the object approached even closer I realized that the lights were extremely bright, far brighter than I had ever seen on a Good Year Blimp. As for the color, I only remember the lights being white. They were all over the craft in no discernable pattern and they pulsed slowly and seemingly randomly. The intensity of the lights were very similar to magnesium burning.  It was a very intense, pure white light.
The object moved slowly and steadily toward our apartment complex and eventually got very close. There was no sound.  In my best estimation it was probably only 250 feet in the air and 300 yards away from my vantage point.  It was very large and looked very similar to a blimp in shape and size.  I remember being absolutely mesmerized by the bright flashing lights, but not afraid. 
Then, all of a sudden, it went from casually hovering along, to an insanely fast dash into the night sky. In a matter of 1 one thousand, 2 one thousand, 3 one thousand, it went from being this large bright object to a speck of light that looked like a star, and then completely gone.  The rate of acceleration was unbelievable.  There was no sound.
 The next thing I recall, is that I was in a state of delirium after this incident, and I didn’t even mention what had happened to anyone.  I just went to bed.  
The next day I hadn’t remembered a thing.  This memory actually came back to me slowly but positively over the next 2-3 years.  In my estimation the lights that had so mesmerized me, probably had something to do with this memory loss.
Anyways, that is my experience. It is actually quite hard to put into written words, and hopefully I’ve conveyed myself well enough.  I am a believer 100%, that this experience was real and UFO’s do exist.
Witness indicates that the date of the sighting is approximate.  PD