never drive on noisy bearings, if they eat themselves up or lock you would be dealing with a locked up car at minimum or road kill at maximum.
Always ensure that the correct grease is used for wheel bearings and that the grease seal(s) is (are) in place. The bearing cavity void should be filled with grease so that grease can roll in the bearing cages.
btw wheel bearing grease is not super stiff thick stuff, it should not be more than NLGI2 in thickness.