{nd} Hovered behind then above my car, then straight away at high speed.
It was the summer of 1984 (July or August); I was a 34 year old musician, on my way home from a private party my band had played for, held in a barn in a rural area about 45 minutes north of Pittsburgh. The rest of the band stayed to visit with party hosts and guests but I wanted to get home to my daughter so I left about 11pm. I had no health problems, was not experiencing any stress, have no history of mental illness or substance abuse, was not overly tired, and had not been drinking. The job had gone well and I was happy and relaxed though vigilant as I was driving on a windy, unfamiliar 2 lane country road with no street lights. I was driving a Vega Station Wagon, with clear view of the road behind; the speed limit was 35 MPH but I was only going about 30 MPH.
I was about 10 minutes on the road when I suddenly saw the glow of a red light in my rear view mirror. It appeared to be immediately (literally, inches), behind the car, at the level of the top of my back seat. My first reaction was, ah man, it's a cop, and I was going to get a ticket. There was no place to pull over, and no other cars on the road so I just put my flashers on and brought the car to a stop. On my left on the other side of the road was a steep grassy hill about 10 feet high, at the top of which was a large field (about 5-6 acres I'd guess) with a farmhouse about 100 feet in the distance. Beyond the farm house were woods with tall trees. The only light I recall in the farmhouse was a porch light. I rolled my window down and reached for my purse to get my driver's license etc when I started to realize there was something wrong with this picture. The red light remained in the same position behind me but wasn't blinking like a police car would, there was no policeman in sight, I hadn't been driving over the speed limit, and the red glow was so bright, I couldn't see past it to visualize a police car. I wasn't frightened at that point, just very confused. I sat there for maybe 1-2 minutes, looking at the light in my rear view mirror, when I heard a soft hum and the red light slowly lifted straight up out of my view. I had a terrible uh-oh feeling, leaned out of the open driver side window, looked up, and saw the underside of a round, grey, metallic craft of some sort hovering about 2 feet above my car. It was approximately 6-8 feet in diameter. NOW I was scared, petrified actually. I brought myself QUICKLY back through the open window, and sat there quite paralyzed, wondering what the hell it was and what I should do: drive away fast, be still and hope it went away, etc. It hovered for maybe another 1-2 minutes, then moved slowly toward the hill where it stopped again. Now I had a clear view of the craft - circular with a dome about 4-5 feet in height, and a pair of oblong structures on the back of either side (facing me). They were about 6 feet long, pointed on top and bottom, wider in the middle, with large well defined red lights in the middle part, and not well defined, smaller white lights flanking the red lights too & bottom. The metal of the light structures was lighter and shinier than the body of he craft. It hovered there for a very short time, less than a minute, then took off straight above the farmhouse and over the surrounding woods at warp peed, leaving nothing but a light trail behind it. It made no sound as it flew off. I jumped out of the car and ran up the hill to see where it went but it was gone by the time I reached the top. I thought about going to the farmhouse to see if anyone was there and if they saw it but was shaking all over by then. I got back in my car and drove fast back to the main road, full of fear that whatever it was might come back. It didn't and I've never seen anything like it since. I have a sketch of what I saw; I don't how to get it to you electronically but would be glad to mail it.
Over the years I've confided the experience to 4 friends but never officially reported it to police or other government agency because frankly, it was such a close encounter and so outrageous, I didn't think anyone would believe me. I wrote it off to an amazing life experience and put it behind me until watching Hanger One on TV this week; it was the first time I'd heard of MUFON, checked out your web site, and decided to report my experience. It was a long time ago but I remember every detail like it was yesterday. I hope someone will find it useful to know.