I was getting ready to leave for work on Tuesday morning. Tired from lack of sleep, I opened my phone to browse for a few moments. Atop my Facebook feed, YouTube vlogger Jacob the Carpetbagger dropped the news: fellow vlogger Adam the Woo had shockingly passed away the previous day.
I don't even follow Jacob the Carpetbagger, but there he was, ready to ruin our day. I sat down on the couch, wondering who has was talking about (he mentioned he lost his mentor). Someone in the comments vaguely mentioned a sister, so I thought, maybe that's who it was?
I looked at the photo that he posted again. The air knocked out of me, I went to YouTube, when it became clear that others were talking too: Adam was gone. I stood, trembling, but unable to sit again, merely pacing about the room. The cliche was true; it felt like a joke or a hoax. I truly thought that someone would jump out any second and say, "April Fools!" There was an error message in my brain: I simply couldn't compute what happened.
Now I'm not normally one to be really sad at the death of someone super famous, YouTubers especially. So why does this one hit hard?
Well, for starters, it's a shock. He was young and had plans to do a Route 66 adventure in 2026. At the facility where I work people die every year, so it's not always a shock. Sometimes it's even a relief. But Adam was 51 and active.
For another, he was personable.
A bearded, sunglassed man in a Mickey Mouse T-shirt invited me to join him for the day's adventure caffeinated beverage in hand. Above the rearview mirror, a tiny ape aptly named Big the Foot jangled from the rearview mirror, ready for a front-row seat.
I didn't even mind that he took ten minutes to get to the actual house---something which normally would have pissed me off for the false advertising (okay, maybe I was miffed at first)---and rambled about other things and sights along the way, pointing out various points of interest as he'd speak to a friend, something of which I was in short supply of. His commentary captivated me from the get-go. To call him an influencer, peddling products, would be a gross falsehood. (In fact, he was quite the opposite---not wanting to take a cent from followers or even wanting to allow ubiquitous YouTube ads.) He didn't put on a loud personality. He simply took to the streets, seeing what he wanted to see.
And so I clicked on more of his videos.
He toured the backroads of America---not just museums but also old post offices, abandoned towns, Coca Cola ads, and Wild West villages. Perhaps because they were both born in Tupelo, he loved Elvis, touring Graceland and his birthplace. He'd also been taking to record shopping, his punk rock history still present. He loved Disney and spent a lot of time in the parks. But even then there was content to enjoy; he was probably the only person on Earth to spend a full day at Splash Mountain on the day it shuttered, recording a genuinely interesting perspective for posterity. For someone who wasn't thrilled at the idea of traveling the country, Adam showed me the world. And the best stuff was often the subtle stuff, far from the main city or theme park.
One of the highlights of my 2025 was the start of Adam's international travel. He started in Belize and later went to London, South Korea, Ecuador, and even Malta. These videos were an EVENT sometimes up to an hour. I would get home from work where I now lived independently, fire up YouTube on TV, and settle in for an evening of travel.
Adam's travels weren't always tourist sites and other countries. On a given day, he might visit orange-themed gift shops, the first McDonalds, record stores, old jails in Idaho, took a "Hood Life" van tour in Compton, and got chased out of a creepy abandoned Florida hotel. He didn't let 2020 stop him, traveling to find local food joints and reviewing them for us. I also enjoyed his recent trips to go thrift shopping.
Any Woovian will also be familiar with a few iconic moments. His daring adventure riding a bike down a slide is not to be forgotten. What about the time he stepped in poop at Buc-ees, or moved out of the van? But one of my absolute favorites was the road trip that he took with his father, remembering childhood destinations as Papa Woo pointed out all the decrepit churches where he once preached, as well as Adam's childhood homes. They moved quite a bit in his youth, allowing for diverse content among Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and more. I worked at a spa at the time and I would try to watch as much as I could before clients walked in the door. The videos were long, so I had to start early!
There was an implicit message, also stated by a few commenters, that it was so important to cherish the time you had with your parents. We knew that Papa Woo was getting older. But nobody could have predicted that Adam would be gone long before his father.
I think one of the real reasons I appreciate Adam is that he got me back into traveling, too. It recently occurred to me that I had Adam's airport vlogs to thank for that. He'd take us along as he went through security, talk about the process as he was putting his shoes back on ("It's all part of the experience"), find his gate, try to find his plane out the window, browse the kitschy tourist shops, get frustrated over delays, and enjoy an in-flight snack while selecting a movie to watch. Adam made travel look doable and unknowingly served as a guide for those of us who were inexperienced travelers.
I couldn't imagine getting on another long plane trip; they seemed so unpleasant. I'd watch Adam and be glad I was in my cozy home. But in 2022, hypothetical plans were taking place for a trip I'd like to take. In 2023, I threw myself far outside the confines of my tiny comfort zone and traveled solo for the first time to Texas, farther than I'd ever been. The experience was glorious. I met friendly people, including someone I admired, and shook their hand. I didn't need a plane. I was flying home myself on that last day.
Like Adam's USA trips, not everything I saw was touristy. Though we did both see Space Center Houston. Adam helped me realize that going there alone could be just as fun. We also shared a second experience in Houston: getting attacked by birds. His was some kind of goose; mine were mallards. Sometimes the best tourism was just taking in the local stuff and experiencing what daily life was like for a Texan.
It changed my life. Last year I took another solo trip to Colorado, and that was equally wonderful.
Adam was also getting ready for more trips. To my delight, he said he would focus more on America's backroads again and do less Disney (although if you watched his walk and talk videos long enough, you knew better than to think he'd stick to his plans). A route 66 adventure was in the works. Life and adventure lay ahead, endless videos as far as the eye could see. I sometimes wondered when Adam would quit, eventually retiring and thinking of how sad it would be. The idea seemed unreal. And anyway, that wouldn't happen anytime soon.
On December 22nd, 2025, the Grinch came to steal Christmas from Adam...literally.
His last edited video is one of an acquaintance dressing up as the Grinch and goofing around in the neighborhood together. He'd just put his Christmas decor out after having made it back from his recent trip, where he finally got to see a long-awaited destination: Disneyland Paris. At the end of his last video, he ran around town with the Grinch embracing his hometown, admired the sunset and said how perfect it was, and ended with his final words to us: "The vlog...is over."
One can only hope for that kind of last night.
The video itself is now a comment shrine. But there was so much more to be done and even I'm sad at the 66 trip I won't get to see. He had plans to visit Route 66, go back to Hawaii, and celebrate Christmas 2025. Yet, Adam filmed hundreds upon hundreds of videos before his passing, squeezing in more life than most people would in 100 years. There is still a lot more I haven't seen, and I haven't even touched on his urban exploration channel of yore. Beyond that, there is more traveling for me to be done, I'm sure. But can any of us be sure? Nobody is promised tomorrow.
So for now, I will live by Adam's rules, ambling along, finding adventure and enjoyment wherever I go and not putting things off. And of course, there's that huge video backlog to watch and more virtual adventure to be had.
From a stranger to you: thank you, Adam.
The adventure...will continue.
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