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Yes, I know that it's the most cliche idea for a topic ever, but I'd like to know what your favorite Barks story ever is, and why do you think it's so darn good? And I know it's Barks, so you are allowed to pick more than one. Just be sure it's about one specific story, rather than Barks stories in general. This is the place to highlight a great Barks story and gush about why it's so good.
One of my all-time favorites is In Old California!. It's Barks at his absolute top, and may be the best story he's ever done. I love his 1950-1951 artwork, and personally I think it's better than his 1947-1948 art. Old California is funny, dramatic, suspenseful and creates a great atmosphere. And as we all know, Barks is very good at doing that. The wide open spaces and wild frontier of 1848 California have this long-lost feeling to them, and really gives you an idea how far away it is. And it's remarkable how much the dream is a metaphor for reading the comic, even though Barks never intended it that way. When DD and the nephews wake up, it's like their great adventure has become a dream for them. And when I read the story, I'm just as intensly captivated as them, and when I put it away and do something else, it too becomes some sort of far-away dream. The rest of the story is just top-notch. And Donald getting struck with gold fever is one of my favorite Barks moments.
Another favorite of mine is The Horseradish Story. Barks loved doing sea epics. It shows. Again Barks' art is at its best, and so is the story. Take horseradish for example. To readers today, it's crazy that something so ridiculously redundant would cause Scrooge to lose all of his fortune, but the flashback takes place when spices like horseradish were rare, highly sought after and thus valuable. What follows is a month at sea, starting comically, but maintaining its suspense. They then find the 200-year old horseradish (Barks' most obvious MacGuffin ever) and then... nothing. Not a breeze. Introducing the next problem: they've got their MacGuffin, but the sail ship won't sail because there is no wind. But not for long, because soon wind starts blowing. There's a hurricane coming. Which is good for me, because storm-at-sea sequences have this thing, I don't know, it attracts me. But that's not it yet! McSue comes and tries to blast the ducks to the bottom of the ocean. Say anything you want, but Barks knew awesome. Eventually, the Ducks end up on a raft, with the box of horseradish, and McSue. (There's enough in that sentence to make an entire half-hour sitcom episode.) But not before the moral dilemma: should they save his life, after he tried to end theirs? Of course. (Barks later borrowed this from himself for The Great Wig Mystery, where it's done less well. The pig villain is such a lying jerk I wish they'd had him drown.) Still, he tries to get them off the raft. Then, the ducks take a level in badass and tie McSue up. The nephews save the day in the nick of time. Phew. What an adventure! The story ends on a cute gag that shows everything has gone back to normal. ($226? That's a fortune! To be honest, they did work an entire month for him.) And it ends on a valuable lesson which Scrooge and his ancestor have learned: always read the fine print. (Which, strangely, wasn't used in The Money Well, where it was only don't be a Scrooge and buy new glasses, cause you can't do without.) And this story certainly is fine print. Fantastic print.
There are in my opinion a few more "perfect" Barks stories (and I mean 100/100 perfect), the first ones I can think of Vacation Time and A Christmas For Shacktown. I might write about them another time.

One of my favorite Barks long Donald Duck adventures is "Donald Duck in Ancient Persia". It has a spookiness to it seldom found in funny animal comics. From the weirdness of the human scientist, the dehydrated people brought back to life, Donald's ancient Persian double, and the ducks mad dash to escape being turned to dust, it just gets weirder as it goes along, and the reader can't help but be drawn in to such an unusual story. Despite the inherent creepiness of it all, Barks' humor is still present throughout the whole thing.

There are so many good stories, but asking my childhood memories I would say The Old Castle's Secret, Vacation Time and The Terror of the River.

Well, at least you acknowledge that choosing one story might be impossible, DDDU! And it sounds like you most want people to write about their favorites, not just list them. So....

My favorite long Donald adventure: Lost in the Andes. Because of the wacky inventiveness that created the blocky world of Plain Awful. Because I'm fond of the Lost World genre, to which Barks first introduced me. Because the silliness of the Plain Awfultonians' extreme copy-cattish behavior is clearly *not* an "oh, look at the primitive natives!" put-down, but rather a satire of American faddishness. Because of the distinctive look of Plain Awful in its Andean setting, and the iconic status of the square eggs. Because HD&L get to save the day, through an inspired combination of a child's bad habit (chewing gum is what your teacher told you you couldn't ever do in school) and the insight to make use of the talents of the native fauna.

My favorite ten-pager: The Screaming Cowboy. No other ten-page story has so many laugh-out-loud moments for me.
--"I wrote that song, mister!" "You don't say! You look healthy enough, otherwise!"
--the Snow Hermit's note on the tree
--"The Screaming Cowboy! I'm to put in the nickel and run for my life! Who wouldn't?"
--the final punchline: "An early spring!"
Plus it has "a real, shivery mystery" and a great hermit and one of those very funny moments when HD&L find one (or more) local Woodchuck(s) to help out. And the Reveal: that Donald's own song causes the avalanches (we have met the enemy and he is us).

My favorite long Scrooge story: that's by far the hardest pick. I'm going to pull a Gerstein and say, this is my favorite today. On another day I might give a different answer. Today's favorite: The Phantom of Notre Duck. I love the visuals of the cathedral, inside and outside. I love it when they're trapped in the organ pipes, and when Scrooge looks out through the ceiling painting. I love the Phantom as a character, and his lifelong secret art project, the miniature cathedral made of wishing coins. I love that the Official Hound saves the day. Some people have written that, while the art in this story is impressive, the story is jokey and lightweight, not as significant as the plotlines in earlier Scrooge stories. I look on this story as what some might call Deep Play. It's a playful chase, with lots of humorous elements; and the solution of the mystery itself is the discovery of the Phantom's play, his art project. The fact that Scrooge is immediately impressed by and drawn towards this art project says something positive both about Scrooge's character and about such obsessive passions. I feel that in a way this story is Unca Carl's blessing on all the nerds who obsessively collect, especially when their collections have something artistic about them, especially when their passion might be looked on by outsiders as childish. In other words, it's Unca Carl's blessing on US. :) I also like the "...and he is us" denouement when the Phantom's face is revealed.

On another day, I might pick, oh, The Unsafe Safe, with its fabulous Yeekers and its best-ever scene of Magica-in-frustrated-rage. Or North of the Yukon, with Scrooge's Greatest Moment, when he sacrifices his fortune for the sake of a noble, heroic, loyal dog. The writing on that final panel on that page: "So Uncle Scrooge turns his back upon all his wealth to share the fate of a rented dog in the plunging ice of the Frozenjaw!" "I'll buy us both a hot dinner, Barko, when we get to shore--if I can afford it!" The placing of the word "rented" in that first sentence: that's genius. The fact that Scrooge (and Barks) senses a kinship with Barko, with his values, which time seems to have passed by.

Most of the stories I have mentioned here are not picked on the basis of nostalgia, since I did not get to read them in childhood. My nostalgic favorite Scrooge adventure would be Pipeline to Danger. As the youngest of many siblings, the youngest of the cousins, and the youngest in my grade at school, I strongly identified with the theme of that story, the undervaluing (and eventual vindication) of the little ones. The adult world (and also the world of my peers, for that matter) tends to honor the Big Operators with size and money and power. But Barks values the physically tiny Arabs, their integrity and fierce pride, their great courage in the face of extinction. (I love the exchange: "You have my word! I am famed in every capital of the world as honorable Scrooge McDuck!" "Never heard of you in this capital!") And HD&L, who have been dismissed and made to feel very small, turn out to be the Little Operators who save the day by doing something big.

Favorite Barks lines:
--"No ear on earth can withstand the alpenhorn! And I must blow it! I, whose loudest sound to date was made once when my teeth crunched a caraway seed in a bit of spiced gruyere!" (Donald Raucous Role, WDC 178)
--"Skunk cabbage! I live again!" (The 24-Carat Moon)

Next to the ones I've mentioned in my first post, I think Barks' best adventure stories are Dangerous Disguise (spy fiction!) and The Golden Helmet. Nostalgiawise is No Such Varmint one of my favorites, it was my first Barks story in English, accompanied by beautiful coloring and a Don Rosa cover. I had the story in Gladstone I's Donald Duck Adventures 19. Luck of the North had in my opnion the best moment in all Duck comics, when Donald realises the consequences of his sending Gladstone Gander on a wild goose chase. The best Gyro Gearloose story is Monsterville and my favorite Scrooge is A Cold Bargain. My favorite short story is Uncle Scrooge in His Handy Andy.

The Seven Cities of Cibola stands out for me. It was the first duck story I read as a kid that made me say "wow."
To me it was the quintessential moment where I realized that Barks was one of the great storytellers of the world and that comic books could create moments that played out like movies in your mind.
Whenever I introduce people to Disney comics, that's always the story I start with.

When it comes down to comedy - "Gladstone Terrible Secret" cracks me up as well the "Crazy Quiz show".
But one story I love not becose it's funy but cose it gives me the creeps is "Ancient Persia". It's so freaky and dark... O_o well, for a duck stroy any way.
"Only poor old Man" is one of my favorite stories as I love how it made Scrooge a 3-dimentional character.