Hi, WesternGal,

merging cells means putting the cells together into one cell - you will have only one cell physically which stretches across two cells.

Maybe this code will lead you into the direction where you want to go. As it is working with ActiveCell please choose cell C3 before you run the code:
Sub WesternGal()
With ActiveCell
  MsgBox .Text & vbCrLf & .Offset(1, 0).Text
End With
End Sub
Ciao,
Holger