Ahhh...
So The Bull Snake and the Gopher Snake are closely related.
Bullsnake - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pituophis catenifer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
So, I was right... more or less...
I've been hoping that some gopher snakes would find their way back to my neighborhood to help with my mole and gopher problem.
Looks that way! I have handled some over 6' long and they can be very intimidating when they want to be. That and people seem to go out of their way to run over all snakes on a roadway and these are so colored they look like rattlers and get a bad rap and few make it across a road to do the good things they do.