Joining text from parsing a complex table structure in ruby nokogiri - ruby

Question

I have an HTML table and I want to get the text from some td's. Now sometime the text is in single td but sometimes its spread into multiple td's. How can I join the text in case if its spread in multiple td's. Here is the HTML code
<table class="detailRecordTable">
<tbody>
<tr><td class="detailSeperator" colspan="6"> </td></tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" style="width: 11% " class="detailData"><b>02/03/2016</b></td> <td style="width: 3%" class="detailLabels" valign="top"> </td>
<td style="width: 85%" class="detailData alignData" colspan="3"> <b>Disposed- Pet for Writ Denied</b> /td>
<td style="width: 1%" class="detailData"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" style="width: 14% " class="detailLabels" valign="top"> </td>
<td style="width: 86% " class="detailData" colspan="2">ORDER ISSUED: PETITION FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS DENIED. MANDATE AVAILABLE TO COUNSEL OF RECORD VIA SECURE CASE.NET.</td>
</tr>
<tr><td class="detailSeperator" colspan="6"> </td></tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" style="width: 11% " class="detailData"><b>01/29/2016</b></td>
<td style="width: 3%" class="detailLabels" valign="top"> </td>
<td style="width: 85%" class="detailData alignData" colspan="3">
<b>Suggestions in Opposition</b></td>
<td style="width: 1%" class="detailData"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" style="width: 14% " class="detailLabels" valign="top"> </td>
<td style="width: 86% " class="detailData" colspan="2">SUGGESTIONS IN OPPOSITION TO RELATORS PETITION FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS; Electronic Filing Certificate of Service.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" style="width: 14%" class="detailLabels"> </td>
<td style="width: 86%" class="detailData" colspan="2"> <b>Filed By:</b>JOHN RICHARD SHANK JR
</td>
</tr><tr>
<td style="width: 14%" class="detailLabels" colspan="2"></td>
<td style="width: 86%" class="detailData" colspan="2"> <b>On Behalf Of:</b>ELIZABETH DAVIS
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="detailSeperator" colspan="6"> </td></tr>
<tr><td valign="top" style="width: 11% " class="detailData"><b>01/22/2016</b></td><td style="width: 3%" class="detailLabels" valign="top"> </td>
<td style="width: 85%" class="detailData alignData" colspan="3"><b>Court Order Issued</b></td>
<td style="width: 1%" class="detailData"> </td>
</tr>
<tr><td colspan="2" style="width: 14% " class="detailLabels" valign="top"> </td>
<td style="width: 86% " class="detailData" colspan="2">ORDER ISSUED: RESPONDENT REQUESTED TO FILE SUGGESTIONS IN OPPOSITION ON OR BEFORE 2:00 P.M. ON JANUARY 29, 2016.</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
I want the output like this,I put the asterisks around where the text should be joined
["ORDER ISSUED: PETITION FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS DENIED. MANDATE AVAILABLE TO COUNSEL OF RECORD VIA SECURE CASE.NET." , "**SUGGESTIONS IN OPPOSITION TO RELATORS PETITION FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS; Electronic Filing Certificate of Service. Filed By:JOHN RICHARD SHANK JR On Behalf Of:ELIZABETH DAVIS**" , "ORDER ISSUED: RESPONDENT REQUESTED TO FILE SUGGESTIONS IN OPPOSITION ON OR BEFORE 2:00 P.M. ON JANUARY 29, 2016"]
I have tried this but it not joining the text and I'm getting the text like a separate item, especially the text surrounded by asterisks
if !tr.css('td.detailData').empty?
ac_desc = tr.css('td.detailData')[0].text.strip.gsub("\n", '').gsub("\t", '')
end
if ac_desc != ""
acc_descs << ac_desc
end