I've been lurking around this board for a while, but your post finally made me register.

At any rate, I actually live on the East Bay at the moment, but I've family and regular business in Palo Alto (and the general suburban area), so if you need someone to send your snake to before you get here I might be able to help.

I strongly suggest you call the East Bay Vivarium (510-841-1400) for advice. They have racks to board reptiles (it's not too expensive) and if you could send your snake to them they'd probably be the safest place to have your snake while you get here. (As much as I'd love to help out a fellow ball-owner, the liability/responsibility is rather scary.) I make biweekly East Bay-Peninsula trips so if you need help picking up from there it'd be easy for me to help.

And this was a rather elaborate post. Hope it helps. Or at least you can appreciate the sentiment.