While traveling north on hyw 35 at 11:55pm approximately 3 miles north of the IA state line my wife and I seen lights in the sky. These lights looked similar to rotating search lights but it appeared that the light was coming from above the cloud cover and it was more eratic than search lights. Sometimes there would be four lights sometimes 5. The lights also zig zagged back and fourth across the interstate. I was traveling approximately 70mph and the lights appeared to be getting further ahead of me to the north. I am a private pilot and a frequent observer of the sky. I have never seen anything in the sky that I could not explain until this point.