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In this issue of Rolling with Ankeny
- 🍺 Weekend pick: an old Ford garage, now 30 taps
- 🎡 SummerFest + the Grand Parade Saturday
- 🌡️ Weather: sunny skies for the parade
- 💼 Spotlight: the planner who starts with his dad
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Before it poured 30 beers, it sold Fords. The building at 305 SW Walnut spent decades as a Ford showroom and garage — and with SummerFest taking over town all weekend and the forecast finally cooperating, this is the weekend to go see what it became. Let's roll. 🚲
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🍺 Weekend pick: Uptown Garage Brewing Co.
Every weekend restaurant pick has a story, but few come with a Ford emblem in the rafters. Uptown Garage Brewing sits in a former Ford showroom and garage at 305 SW Walnut St., and the taproom leans into it — polished concrete, big roll-up doors, and the bones of the old service bays still visible.
What's on tap is the reason to stay: more than 30 rotating beers and ciders, plus canned cocktails, wine, and soda for the non-beer crowd. There's a stage for live music, a golf simulator, and a genuinely big outdoor patio — pet-friendly, with lawn games — which is exactly where you want to be with mid-80s and sunshine in the weekend forecast.
It's also a smart pre-parade move: open noon–11 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m.–11 p.m. Saturday, a short hop from the SummerFest action. Start there, walk to the fun.
📍 Source: Uptown Garage Brewing Co.
🎡 SummerFest takes over The District all weekend
Ankeny's biggest street party is here. The Ankeny Area Chamber's SummerFest — themed "Jingle in July" this year — runs Friday through Sunday at The District at Prairie Trail (1500 SW Main St.), with food, vendors, live music, and the whole town turning out.
The centerpiece is the Grand Parade on Saturday, July 11, at 9 a.m. Floats stage at Ankeny High School (1155 SW Cherry St.), so expect road closures and heavy traffic near the high school and along the route that morning — leave early and plan around it.
New this year: a Lip Sync Contest on Saturday at 11:15 a.m. on the SummerFest grounds. And Sunday night closes with a fireworks show. Bring a chair, bring the kids, and bring sunscreen.
📍 Source: Ankeny Chamber SummerFest — Event Info
🌡️ Weather: sunny skies land right on cue for the parade
After weeks of storms and heat warnings, SummerFest weekend gets the good stuff — dry, sunny, and warm without being brutal.
Today (Friday): Patchy morning fog, then partly sunny with just a slight (about 23%) chance of an afternoon shower or storm. High near 85°. Light winds.
Tonight: Mostly cloudy, low around 67°.
Saturday (parade day): Mostly sunny, high near 86° — about as good as it gets for a 9 a.m. parade.
Sunday: Sunny, high near 87°.
Looking ahead (Monday): Sunny and a touch warmer, high near 89°.
📍 Source: NWS Des Moines forecast for Ankeny
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💼 Local Business Spotlight: Northwestern Mutual — Joshua Johnson
Ask Joshua Johnson why he does this work and he doesn't start with spreadsheets — he starts with his dad. Johnson lost his father to cancer when he was young, and watched his family shoulder the financial strain of having no plan in place. That loss is the reason he became a wealth-management advisor in the first place.
In plain terms, that means he helps families build a financial roadmap — protecting income, growing savings, and preparing for life's biggest moments before they hit, rather than scrambling afterward. With degrees in both finance and accounting, he works one-on-one with clients instead of as a faceless national line, shaping each plan around a family's goals and values.
A profile of the business, not financial advice — any plan depends on your own situation.
The basics:
💼 Financial planning, insurance & wealth management for families and individuals
🎓 Advisor Joshua D. Johnson — degrees in finance and accounting
📍 1245 Jordan Creek Pkwy, Suite 200, West Des Moines
📞 (515) 233-7038
⚡ Today's Takeaway
SummerFest owns the weekend — parade Saturday at 9, three days at The District, and finally a forecast that plays along. If you want a quieter corner of the celebration, the old Ford garage on Walnut and its patio are a short walk away.
Monday: how the weekend went, plus the week ahead at City Council.
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Rolling with Ankeny — Local news, local deals, no fluff. 🚲