A bright orange sphere hovering over interstate 40 turned white then vanished.

My mother and I were coming home from work at about 1:20 to 1:30 AM heading East on Highway 64 In Pottsville area near Interstate 40 when we noticed what looked like an orange glow of a large fire on or near the interstate in front and to the left of us.  We both commented about how it must be very large fire because of large glow.  
As we headed into Pottsville, we noticed the glow seemingly get larger.  Interstate 40 can be seen pretty clearly from highway 64.  The approximate mile markers on I-40 where my mother and I witnessed event would be between 87 and 88. 
As we drove East, we came to an area where the Interstate (I-40)can be seen clearly.  Both my mother and I witnessed what looked like a large ball or sphere of orange light, lift up and over the interstate.  This object was extremely bright.  I estimate it's distance from us at approximately 75 to 100 yards.  I estimate its diameter at about 10-12 feet because it was about the same size in height as the diesel trucks driving under the object.  There is no way the drivers of vehicles on I-40 could not have seen this object.  My mother was driving and I was in the passenger seat in awe of this sight.  
She (my mother) slowed the car as we watched this "thing". It lifted about 50 to 75 feet off of the ground and then changed color.  Now it was a blinding white color.  It was like looking at someone welding because it hurt to look at it directly.  We had to pull over because we could no longer see how to drive as we were temporarily blinded. 
Then we noticed it just blinked out.  As far as we could tell, it was gone.  
I asked my mother to get on the interstate at exit 88 heading West to see if there were any burn marks or maybe a car accident in the area.  I could not pursuade her to do that.  There were no other cars on highway 64 at the time of this event that we know of.  
I was not sure of what we had just witnessed, so I asked my mom what she thought she saw.  She was shaken, but described everything exactly as I saw it.  We thought it may have been an car accident and subsequent explosion.  We had our windows down about halfway and we heard no blast.  Surely we would have heard something that big and bright no farther than we were from it.  
This disturbed me so badly when we got home I reported it to the police.  They did not tell me anything at all, like if someone else had reported it or anything.  They just said they would check it out.  I do not know the exact date or even the month for sure now, as I rarely ever talked about it. 
I'm pretty sure it was in early to mid Fall as it was still warm outside and it was Football season.  I remember that because I found out later that day while looking for news of what we saw, there was a story about a cheerleader dying in a bus accident when a diesel truck hit the school bus she was in and he kept going.  This however was not what we witnessed as this happened about five miles farther East.  
I can't seem to remember anything else pertinent to the event.
Witness indicates that the date of the incident is approximate.  PD