I have only once so far in my first play through, I was on my way to Greywater Grotto and I decided to sneak through Helgen past the Bandits. When I got there I found Farkas locked in a furious battle with the bandits, it was kinda cool to watch Farkas kicking bandit butt. I went up to talk to him but unfortunately all he says in what you hear Jorvaskrr, still it was a nice diversion.

A couple times but only ever before joining them

yeah i've run into them out in the wilderness a couple of times, most recently just west of winterhold fighting a snow bear.

I have run into Aela, who is my waifu, several times while exploring.

yeah twice once before i started once when i finished. first by dawnstar i think, the second was definatly north of riften in the volcanic marsh area.

I've ran into them north of Riften. Usually it's Aela and Athis and someone else.

Yeah a few times, the most recent one wasn't too friendly. I was fighting an ice troll and I shouted at the troll, but Vilkas and Aela were behind him and they became hostile too. So once the troll was killed I shot my bow at Vilkas and Aela to stop them from hitting me. They fell to their knees and i ran lol.

Once. I was running for my life chased by a kickass vampire and his thrall when I passed farkas, the guy who always wants to go to the inn and the dunmer who were fighting a snow bear. After they'd killed the bear I started circling them hoping they would help me kill the vampire but they didn't interfere, the dunmer even said something along the lines of "oh my, someone do something"

I ran into Vilkas at the crest of a mountain range in the middle of nowhere. We just passed by and he said something about how he would see me back at Jovasskar.

Ran into Farkas and a couple others right outside Twilight Sepulcher. Right after they passed, I got attacked by a bear.

Just last night in fact. Note, I have not joined the Companions yet.

I think I might have seen them a couple of times before, but I tend to avoid travelers on the road, their business and mine need not co-mingle.

A few times and they're always being besieged by trolls or sabre cats.

Once, near Nocturnal's sactuary.

I've seen them taking down a cave bear once and that is about it.

Just saw Ria and Vilkas getting whomped on by a Snowy Sabre Cat. I was going somewhere so when I saw they didn't have the situation handled I just rode on.

I ran into that one Dunmer and Rio(?) walking together a bit north of Riften, I've also seen Aela who's my wife outside Windhelm multiple times.

I just made a post on this recently. On my current character, who is not doing the Companions quests, I am seeing Farkas and Vilkas (often accompanied by Ria or Athis) several times in my 75 hours of play. I saw Farkas early on, just south of Helgen. I've seen Vilkas and Ria up near Winterhold. If they aren't traveling somewhere they are usually standing over the corpse of an Elk or Bear, as though relaxing after a hunt.

I've seen them only once, near Falkreath, fighting a Sabre Cat. This was just yesterday actually, and I didn't know you could meet them in the wild before. Really cool.

The random encounters keep surprising me to be honest.

I posted this in another thread a while back...

I once laughed at a scene taking place just outside the Atronach stone:

Vilkas, Fargas, Ria, and Aela getting absolutely pwned by a Mammoth... it was embarrassing. All the begging for mercy as they were on their knees, and that fuzzy elephant just kept stomping and lashing out with his tusks... Aela got a tusk right up her cute little rear-end. I had just seen them beating on that poor Giant outside the farm near Whiterun not an hour (realtime) previously, and I had not helped them fight... so Aela gave me the "We took care of that beast -- no thanks to YOU," bit... so it was amusing for me to see her get beaten down so hard. Serves the snooty little [censored] right!

-Loth

Though Aela's rear-end is cute, I wouldn't say little and there nothingggg wrong with that.

My last character was married to Vilkas and I ran into him and Ria one night out fighting a sabre cat. Looked mighty suspicious to me. They weren't doing too well and I came in and helped them, then Vilkas looked over at me and said "It's good to see you again, dear." Uh huh....

I was about halfway between Markarth and Morthal and came across a dungeon (can't remember the name, sorry) and Aela was standin' around outside it - she had nothing to say...

Heh. Yeah.... On my latest toon, not only was Ria mutzing around in Helgen the day after Alduin trashed the place, but Elenwen decided to walk down the road, and when approached, read my toon a homily on the Empire.

Weird.

Yeah actually at the weirdest time. I was walking to something very important , when all of a sudden Farkas, Athis, and the drunk walk by me outta nowhere. They were nice enough to say, "Brother" as they walk past, but then again I am the harbinger

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk40/Toughmeat48/Skyrim/fieldtrip.png

rather often which was really nice because it felt like they werent just static npcs idling in their chairs in jorvaskr.