Wow ... here's a crazy follow up ....

I lift up the paper towel on the hot side and temp gun it, it's at 100 degrees ... stat set at 101 ..... So I drop the stat to 95 degrees. Within 5 minutes of dropping the thermostat setting Khan moved over to his hot side hide ... incredible. I guess I didn't take into account how the snake itself will compress the air out of the paper towel and change the temperature i was reading on top of it. Lesson learned. And thanks again.