There are some mornings you feel like you are being followed by a T-Rex as you drive around North Texas, but in this case the big fella was a 48 foot tall animatronic dinosaur at the Heard Nature Museum in the area where McKinney, Allen and Fairview intersect.
The Heard is a unique location, a well-organized display of the natural history of the area where you are literally walking through an age before humans roamed Texas. From the time when a prehistoric sea covered the land to present day displays of local snakes, toads and other animals, the Heard is a great place to head out for a day.
As suburbia slowly begins to encroach around the nature preserve’s 289 acres of protected woodland, the natural beauty of the center becomes even more important as a wild bird and animal sanctuary. Contained in the center is a small butterfly greenhouse where one can work on their inner National Geographic photography skills.
The entire center is a great learning experience for both kids and adults and an excellent place to wander around the 6.75 miles of nature trails. On these trails you can stumble across birds, insects and other creatures including the aforementioned dinosaurs and real fossils in the rocks.
Fossils and the use of fossil fuels are the main reason for taking the Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid for the quick run up 75 Central Expressway. After exiting at the Stacy Road Outlets in Allen, you go east to Greenville. Head north for 2 miles and a right turn puts you in shouting distance of the front gates.
The Silverado Hybrid is a unique vehicle as there is no other pickup truck in the market that has any sort of Gas Electric 2 Mode system. I have always had a bit of a problem with the hype over hybrids like the Toyota Prius. Replacing one small fuel-efficient low emitting vehicle with another – which also happens to have a couple of hundred pounds of lead and lithium batteries – just doesn’t make sense to me. But the Silverado does.
While a regular 8 cylinder Chevy truck will get around 14-16 mpg in the city, the Silverado Hybrid runs on its electric power plant and in stop and go situations you get an honest to goodness 19-20 MPG city and 20-21 MPG on the highway.
Logic would tell you the highway numbers should always be higher than city but the Chevy has brought the in town numbers significantly higher. On the highway the 6.0 Liter V8 uses the well-proven “Displacement on Demand” system General Motors started using a number of years ago. It shuts off 4 of the cylinders once the well-appointed four-door truck gets up to speed.
There are few vehicles in the market that have the owner loyalty that full sized pickup trucks boast. Family feuds, bar fights and tons of good natured ribbing goes back and forth between Ford, Chevy and Dodge truck owners who are more likely to be life long brand loyal customers. With Nissan and Toyota entering this highly profitable market in the last few years the competition has been getting fierce in Texas.
We buy more trucks in Texas than any other market in North America, so the fact that the Silverado stands alone with NO direct competition for the Hybrid market is truly unique.
I also discovered that the truck can roll through an entire school zone at 20 mph on 100% electric power, stealth mode, quietly rolling up and surprising a couple of crossing guards did give me a good chuckle. When you realize a lowboy cart full of Diet Dr. Pepper and Twinkies rolling across a Wal-Mart parking lot makes considerably more noise than a full sized truck, you can get some seriously evil ideas.
It has been a rough year on GM, having to tuck tail and file bankruptcy cost CEO Rick Waggoner his job, which is unfortunate because GM is now reaping the benefits of his leadership. The biggest problem they have is the perception that they still can’t build a quality car even, though their trucks are legendary. The first Hybrid Silverado I drove was one of the pre-production prototypes which had an option that, sadly, is not available on the production vehicle in dealerships today. It had a power inverter and 3-prong plugs in the bed that you could plug power tools into. If they brought that option back, I believe they could sell more of these trucks than the Oshawa, Ontario plant could build.
Until then the $38,995.00 well equipped four-door two-wheel drive pickup will become a hit slowly as long as gas prices stay relatively stable but if they spike like last summer this will be one of the best values on the market.
For those who think the large V8 powered pickup is a bit of a dinosaur, guess again, Chevy has a real winner here.
Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary
One Nature Place
McKinney, TX
972-562-5566
