I've seen the Aurora twice when it was strong enough to reach the lower 48. First time was around 1981 one evening. We were headed to work on a gravyard shift about 10pm in the area of Granite, Colorado. The other time I was maybe 1998 west of Elko, Nevada heading west on I80. Both times it just light up the northern sky with just an orange glow. The news reported that's what people were seeing about the glowing northern sky. It wasn't as spectacular as what's seen way up north, but still pretty interesting to see.