Glowing light moves slowly, hovers then shoots straight up into the sky and vanishes

My boyfriend and I lived just outside Gainesville in rural area.  We were going out for the night and walked out the front door to see a glowing yellow ball off in the distance just above the tree line.  It made no sound and it was moving slowly.  We got in our truck and drove out to the two-lane highway. On the highway we saw a light again off to the left.
 We pulled over to watch the light, which was now an orange color.  The area where the light was located is a large area of vacant land with an old barn. My boyfriend got out of the truck and I stayed inside looking out the window. We watched and it looked like it was at the level of a streetlight though we know there were no streetlights there.
 It must have been a few minutes while it hovered and then all of a sudden it shot straight up in the air moving incredibly fast.  We watched it go up and then the glowing light expanded and then it was gone.
 When we got to the place we were headed, I called somebody related to air traffic/air force to ask them if there was anything they were flying.  They said no, but that it might have been a weather balloon.  It seemed like that might account for the floating glowing light we saw along the tree line but didn’t seem plausible for the way it stayed still and then shot up in the air.  I had never seen something move so fast.
Witness indicates that the date of the incident is approximate.  PD