Popular YouTube vlogger and traveler Adam the Woo, who visited and recorded several High Desert venues over the years, has died.
The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office said deputies conducting a well-being check on Monday afternoon found 51-year-old David Adam Williams dead inside his home in Celebration, Florida. A medical examiner will determine the cause of death, TMZ reported.
Authorities said they were first alerted by a friend, who visited the home and saw Williams lying motionless on his bed.
Williams had just returned home from a trip to Europe and was preparing for the Christmas holiday, according to his YouTube channel.
On Saturday, Williams recorded his last video, “The Grinch Takes Over Celebration Florida – Christmas Time Craziness / BUSY Saturday Night Downtown.”
YouTube fame
Williams launched his first YouTube channel in 2009 and his second channel, TheDailyWoo, in 2012.
During his first few years, Williams traveled and lived in a van and RV before settling down in Orange County, California and later buying a house in Florida.
His channels included documenting travels across the country at amusement parks, roadside attractions, abandoned locations, film locations and more.
Williams was a big fan of Disney parks in California and Florida, the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team, the Back to the Future movie franchise and Americana.
In most videos, Williams can be seen with a “piping hot caffeinated beverage.”
Williams in the High Desert
Williams visited the High Desert several times, touring the Bagdad Cafe, the first Del Taco in Yermo and eating at the North First Avenue Del Taco in Barstow.
He also visited rock formations in Victorville and the gravesites of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans at Sunset Hills Memorial Park in Apple Valley.
Williams also stopped at several Old Route 66 locations in the High Desert.
“I’ve been watching Adam the Woo videos for the last seven years,” Victorville resident Mike Naulty told the Daily Press. “After a while, I thought of him as a friend, even though I never met him.”
Williams and the Daily Press were planning to meet sometime in 2026 to discuss the 100th anniversary of Old Route 66.
‘The world has lost a giant’
Williams’ friend and fellow YouTuber, Justin Scarred, posted on Facebook that, “The world has lost a giant, and I have lost a friend closer to me than blood.”
“Adam and I talked about this day so many times,” Scarred said. “I wish the world could have known the soft and generous heart behind the screen, the laughter and the tears backstage.”
Scarred said Williams touched many lives and he was preparing for another year of “adventures.”
Daily Press reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz may be reached at RDeLaCruz@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on X @DP_ReneDeLaCruz
This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: Popular YouTube traveler, vlogger ‘Adam the Woo’ remembered in High Desert
Reporting by Rene Ray De La Cruz, Victorville Daily Press / Victorville Daily Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
