I was driving my 8 year old son from daycare back home on 441 about 2 miles norh of Eustis, FLorida one spring evening in 1985. I was driving south and looked to the right and saw an extremely bright light about 5000 feet. It was dusk but the light was cleary visible and I pulled over to the side of the road.

I and my son exited the vehicle.  I then observed the light send a beam of light to the earth.  My son was having difficulty locating the light so i kneeled down and held his face and pointed it in the direction of the light.  At this point the light beam quickly retracted into the light source and the light source then flashed across the horizon at an incredible speed and vanished. The light source didnt look like a solid object.  The most fascinating thing was how the beam dropped to earth and retracted.  There were no helicopters or planes visible in the sky just the light source.
Witness indicates that the date of the sighting is approximate.  PD