Astro question - strange intermittent flashing star like objects

Okay, before I start, for the tl;dr's out there, is this just Starlink? I can't find a video of what we saw. But if you know of a Starlink video that shows star like objects flashing on and off at irregular rhythms, and moving about in the sky, that would be GREAT!

Now the full question:

I was just with the fam, exploring some new fishing spots. We fished this creek in the afternoon, then made a mad dash to a nearby lake to try to get the sunset bite.

Didn't catch anything, sun went down, moon wasn't up. Walked all the way back to the car for sandwich dinner (skunked, no fish!) We were going to have a fire on the beach, but fire risk was extreme, so no fires.

We just set up some chairs in the "parking lot" and ate our cold sandwiches. There was no one out there, and we were in DEEP country. Closest somewhat major city was 2 hours away, all others were greater than 6 hours away. Deep Country. So there was no light pollution. We were at 10,000 ft. Crystal clear night, not a cloud in the sky.

We were sitting in COMPLETE darkness for quite a while, cracking jokes, and being just mesmerized by the crystal dome. The Milky Sea was on full display. Huge star count. You must know the kind of night, the night that is so star bright, you know why it is referred to as a "firmament."

This was after the peak of the Perseid meteor shower. But we were seeing shooting stars galore! Some very long, even one that was yellow-orange. That's a new one by me.

We were watching satellites zip around the sky.

Anyway, I started to notice little flashes. They looked like, there was a small black gap in the stars, then something that looked exactly like a star would flash, then disappear. It KIND of looked like an intermittent light on an airplane, but it wasn't that small, these flashes looked just like big stars - you know how they are large, bright, and spiky? Also, the flashes were not regular. At first, I'd see one flash, in one part of the sky. Then nothing there. Then I'd see a flash in another part of the sky. Then nothing there. I didn't mention this, as I'm the only dude in my family, didn't want to spook the ladies. But I kept seeing them.

So I asked if anybody had seen them? They laughed at me. I'm losing my faculties, you see. They said I was crazy and seeing things.

Then, they all, one at a time, started saying they saw one, too.

Once others confirmed they were seeing them too, I figured I probably was not just having a spell. So, they had to be real, the only thing I could think of was that they were meteors coming straight towards us, and burning up. Like, their trajectory was from the direction in space we were looking at, and the meteor came straight at us, burning up in the atmosphere. I don't know if I'm doing a great job of explaining this... I'd never seen this before, so I thought it rather strange to suddenly see such a phenomenon and with such regularity, so I doubted my hypothesis.

Then, I saw one star flash on, several times in the SAME place in the sky. Everyone missed it, as they'd look away right before it'd flash again. This was a bright one. I saw it flash several times in the same place, then it seemed to stop.

BUT then, we all started to see the same flashes. It was me and one of my kids (recently became an adult) at first, we both said, "THERE!" and pointed almost straight ahead, and up about 20-30 degrees from the assumed horizon, there were lumps of mountains and trees in front of us. And then a minute or so later, it flashed again in ALMOST the same spot, then three of us said, "THERE!" Then it flashed a little while later, and all four of us said, "THERE!" So, all of us were seeing it. This thing was completely irregular. It could be 1-2 minutes between flashes. And sometimes, the flash was not focused in a single dot, but kind of seemed that it was like a penny at arm's length sized bright, but, diffuse cloud. This thing moved around. It didn't move on a diagonal across the sky. It moved in a small sort of reverse C, but the C was rotated 60 degrees clockwise, and stretched out a bit, so the ends of the C weren't so curved. Like an open sort of C.

So... WHAT THE HECK WERE THESE OBJECTS OR FLASHES? Some of them were the brightest star in the sky. Jupiter and Saturn, off course, were in the southern sky. These flashes were brighter than Jupiter, by far.

Then I remembered Starlink. I've never seen anything like this before, and I've seen some starlink videos on youtube, and I haven't seen anything that looks like what we saw.

Please, I'm not larping, or anything like that, I'm not trying to deceive, or push an agenda. I'd just like to know what these flashes were.

Thanks all, and I suppose a pin wouldn't hurt to get his attention in the AM. Forget, or don't, didn't ever know (same thing nowadays) what coast he's on, or where he is at all.

But A pin would help him see this, and I'm really curious. If anyone else know what this could be, please let me, and US know!

And if you think it is Starlink, can you link to a video that shows the type of phenomena I'm talking about?

Thanks y'all!