After getting off I-12 onto I-59, I noticed an incredibly bright amber light over the trees about a mile ahead of me on my right, which was east. It was slowly moving westward toward the interstate. I was eventually driving right beside it, until I finally passed it. I got off the next exit, pulled into a gravel parking lot behind the "Last Chance" gas station 30 yards from I-59, and got out of my vehicle and watched it hover over the trees less than 1/4 of a mile from me. It had stopped its slow westward hovering, and was stationary for about a minute before it elevated up into the atmosphere, and out of sight. I looked around and saw two single engine airplanes, one on the horizon to the east, preparing to land at the Slidell airport, and the other plane was on the west horizon, flying in the direction of the airport, thereby heading directly toward where this giant amber light was just hovering. I could make out the lights on each of the wings of both airplanes from where they were on the horizon, which were about 10 times farther from me than the hovering amber light.
When I was far away from the amber light, I was looking at it from the side and it was circular. When I was in front of its flight/hover path, and was looking directly at it, it was circular. When I got off the next exit and watched it go up into space, it was circular. Thereby, I conclude it was a sphere shape, since it was circular from every conceivable angle (side, front and under).
The entire incident took place over a period of 9 to 12 minutes, from first spotting it, driving beside it, then watching it disappear into space.
It DID happen on Independence Day, and there were fireworks going off, but this was ONE single light many times larger than a single engine plane, hovering over the trees for a VERY long time, and then flying so high I couldn't see it. If there is a firework that does all that, I'll be buying that type alone from now on.
